UK delegation at European Youth Parliament in Potsdam

23rd March to 1st April 2007

Nine of the delegation of ten SPS students (one sadly too unwell to travel) represented the UK at the 54th international session of the European Youth Parliament in Potsdam in the last week of March. Over 250 young people representing the 25 countries of the EU and 10 bordering, observer and applicant states (Belarus, Russia, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia inter alia) met for nine days to prepare resolutions in committees reflecting the European Parliament in composition and procedure, addressing primarily questions of migration and immigration.

The resolutions were then debated formally in English and French in the Abgeordnetenhaus (the Parliament of Berlin) over two days. Those passed will be sent to the EU in Brussels. Delegates had a full programme, starting with team-building exercises, and including a formal opening (adressed by Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's interior minister, and Matthias Platzeck, prime minister of Brandenburg), an international concert and a number of social events. Potsdam was chosen as the venue of the 54th conference, as it fell in the week when Berlin was hosting the European Union's celebration of 50 years since the Treaty of Rome was signed.

The EYP is run by its alumni, and many of this year's delegation are planning to take part in the next session at Bialystok, which will enable them to chair international committees in their own right. Even before leaving for Potsdam, the SPS team was assisting at the London regional competition to find next year's UK delegation.