The last 2nd
December, 2013, I took part in an international EYP session, which I reckon I
can describe as the most exciting experience I’ve had in my entire life.
I am totally
concerned about the fact that people don’t understand me when I try to tell
them about the EYP, so let me just start from the beginning; the EYP is a large
European-scale organization which is founded, mainly, by the EP (European
Parliament). It basically tries to encourage the European spirit between the
European youth, by means of the so-called “sessions”, which try to represent
what is done in the European Parliament translating it into some sort of a
general assembly. The process begins at a regional scale in each country of the
Union, involving, at first, groups of students from different high schools,
formed by six or seven members. They take part in the “General Assembly Day”
preparing a speech that tries to defend a resolution, and also by preparing an
attack speech for the resolutions of each group. These resolutions always
regard at European level problems and solutions, and in the debate they are
discussed, and approved or passed. Of course, the GA day’s official languages
are English and French.
The next step
is the National Session. A jury (coming from the EYP organization of each
State) selects three schools from every single Regional Session which is held
in every State, and they take part in a four-day session in which they basically
develop their resolutions, working harder on them than in the regional session,
but with the same aim, which is to participate in a General Assembly day.
We (my too
partners and I) were probably lucky that we were chosen from the 24 schools who
participated in Bilbao to take part in an international session. This session
was held in Essen, Germany, a very cold and apparently odd city (directly
meaning not charming) very near Dortmund and Düsseldorf, which shapes with them
a region called the “Rheinland”, the main power station of Europe. The main
topic of the session was “Young Energy for Europe”, and it was the third of a
series of three sessions which focused in the same energy themes (Istanbul, The
Hague, Essen). We were around a hundred people from anywhere in Europe you
could imagine: there was people from the UK, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden,
Finland, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Macedonia, Greece, Italy,
Austria, Ukraine, Albania, Kosovo, and many more. We lived together in a youth
hostel in, literally, the middle of the wood. It was really exciting, because
you came to know people from all around Europe: as we were organized in
Committees (every Committee worked on a subject, always related to energy, and
developed the resolution to be discussed and approved or passed in the General
Assembly Day), and they try not to make people from the same country coincide in
the same Committee, we had the chance to make friends and discuss and interact
with them in English, and I particularly saw how my English improved only by
listening to some people in the Debates we had.
But the EYP
International Session was half working hard, half having great lots of fun; I
think it was nice to have half of the time to do teambuilding (which consists
in the improving, by your group tutor (your “Chairperson”, which helps you and
organizes your work when preparing the Resolutions), of the behaviors and ways
of intercommunication between the members of your group: which means, playing
cooperative games all the time. We also had lots of parties at night, so we
came to know each other very well and it was possible, at the end, to feel
comfortable between people whose face you wouldn’t have recognized if they had
just passed you by in a supermarket a week before. And I found that really
positive; I take a very beautiful souvenir from Essen’2013, and I must say it
is mostly because of the organization of EYP.
LLUC SOLÉS (1BATX A)
