e took part  to a wonderful and rewarding experience. We attended one of  the EYP's sessions. EYP is the European Youth Parliament, it allows young people like us to participate in a big project and get involved in the European Union’s life and policy.

Here is an extract of our diary, dating back to the afternoon of November 17^th 2013:

“In order to begin this long and exhausting but also interesting and funny afternoon, we took some strength at the European Parliament’s restaurant where we ate until our bellies were full.

After this well- deserved lunch, we headed back to the debate room which was a huge circular room where delegates at the European parliament debate projects for the European Union. There, we had a lot of work to do!

First, each commission had to introduce their resolutions. If one of the commissions didn’t agree with the issue of a commission’s topic, they might criticize it thanks to “the attack speech” of 3 minutes. Then, the commission which was attacked had one minute to defend their issue during “the defend speech”. Afterward, “the open debate” began for three rounds of questions. Indeed some commissions could take the floor so as to ask questions about the laws of resolution. Next, the commission which had previously introduced their resolution and had answered the questions of the others, closed the debate with a “the closing speech”. And so forth….

Every time someone was talking, he had to start by addressing everyone by first introducing himself, and then by saying: «Dear President of the session, member of the board and fellow delegates,". Only after, this introduction he could talk.

Two commissions had already presented their resolutions in the morning (committee on environment issues ENVI which we were part of and committee on agriculture AGRI). So we had six commissions to go to...

 We first listened to the commission on culture and education CULT which had the key issue:  “What measures can the European Union take within the new Erasmus+ program in order to ensure easier access to international mobility for all young European citizens?"

Then it was the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs that had been working on "When immigration is arousing growing tensions inside the EU, several European institutions and non-governmental organizations reports have enlightened in vain the Unaccompanied Foreign Minors fate in the EU. Within the context of the Common European Asylum System, how can the EU assure its minors' reception and assistance they are entitled to receive?", next it was the committee on employment and social affairs or EMPL on " With a very high youth unemployment rate and stagnating economies, how could the European governments promote entrepreneurship in order to create a new generation of young entrepreneurs?".

Afterward, it was AFCO's committee on constitutional affairs' turn with «Before the European Parliament elections on May 2014, which measures could the EU take to make "the European elections more European"? ".

Then we only had two more commissions to go. It was the committee on development or DEVE with « Freedom of trade protection versus development goals: at time of increasing globalization and liberalization of markets, the foreign trade policy of the EU plays a key role in maintaining European competitiveness. How can the EU do to promote a fair/ equitable integration of developing countries into the global trading system, benefiting both Europe and its trading partners?"

Finally the last committee presented their work, it was the committee of AFET on foreign affairs that had been working on " Which plan could allow the European Union and its Member States to clarify and intensify its relationships with its oriental neighbors without jeopardizing the geographical balance of the area and democratic standards which could lead to e free-trade union?".

Commissions after commissions, we finally reached the end.

We were glad to hear the president of the EYP session when she announced that 6 law resolutions on 8 were going to be voted by the real delegates!

Then, the closing ceremony took place in the same room after an umpteenth coffee break.

 The members of the jury delivered speeches. There was the president of EYP , Malo Mofakhami, the president of the session then there was Charlotte Fromont assisted by Marilu El Pelmonte and Mohammad Iranmanesh. After these spekers, we listened to  the members of board, the organizers (i.e: the  students from  Schirmeck, and their teachers), the media team who worked during the whole session , writing journals and a former European delegate. They congratulated us for our hard work and said that we had been great and responsible delegates. They told us that they were quite impressed by our skills and the seriousness we had shown during the session. It was an honor for them ,as for us, to have the privilege to be able to debate at the European Parliament.  They told us they were glad that everything went so well. They ended their speeches by telling us they were proud of us and by thanking all the people who invested themselves in this project to make it possible for us. Then, after a big round of applause, we said goodbye to everybody. We hugged, we kissed.Sometimes,  we even saw tears ! (Okay... a lot of times actually) We were happy but sad at the same time, to leave those wonderful people we met two days ago, for the first time ,and who have become our friends. It was heart breaking. We left our delegates roles to go back to our normal lives that seem so boring now, after this amazing weekend.”

This session was such a great and rewarding experience on many levels: we improved our language skills ,we  broadened our general  knowledge, we defended a  point of view.Besides,  we met people  coming from international lycées  who ,therefore ,spoke English fluently ; moreover,  we learnt a lot  about the European policy. Finally, we were sheer lucky as we visited the European parliament and had the honor to debate in the room in which real delegates debated. Furthermore, we also made some culinary discoveries thanks to the Euro Village (it took place on Saturday). In a few words, this was a wonderful experience in every sense of the word. We would like to thank all the people of the Lycée Leclerc that is to say our English teacher: Mrs Willé, Soizic, without whom none of this would have been possible, the CPE Mr Sommer, and the headmaster Mr Pupp who invested themselves to allow us to live this wonderful opportunity! And .... a few weeks after the end of this session, we received a great memory from the media team! A video of the session! Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZRDWffMmA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeMZRDWffMmA&app=desktop

Hard wake up at 6 o’clock! We had breakfast in our youth hostel, then we took the bus to go to the European parliament (EP) in Strasbourg, some people took advantage of the trip to sleep, others rehearsed their debate.

At 8 o’clock, we arrived to our destination; we waited for a long, long time outside in a chilly atmosphere. There were a lot of security regulations before we could enter the EP. We visited the EP and stopped in a room where EURO-NP GB debates on national subjects took place . We took some pictures and a member of the EP gave us some information about the Parliament and how it works.

At 10 o’clock we started to debate on our projects;

How the debates work: a group presents its project, then questions about the specific vocabulary can be asked. Later on, the debate starts with an “attack speech” from a member of another group, the people presenting their project can reply with a “defence speech”. After that, questions, arguments and opinions are presented .  The group can defend itself and answer the questions. The debate ends with a “sum up speech” from the people presenting their project to convince us to vote for their resolution. Finally, a vote is organised by each group to know if their resolution is accepted or not.

So at 10 am we started the debates with:

ENVI:  Commission on environment, public health and food safety

The subject was: “which measures should the European union take to reduce the ecological disasters threats and their consequences upon the environment and public health?"

Then, with

ACRI: Commission a agriculture

The subject was: “how can the European union promote circular economy initiatives and encourage sustainable development measures on the entirety of its territory in order to improve its common agricultural policy?”

At 11 a.m: time for a little coffee break!

DEVE: Commission on development

The subject was: “freedom of made protection versus development goals: at the time of increasing globalization and liberalization of markets. The foreign trade policy of the EU plays a key role in maintaining European competitiveness. How can the EU do to promote a fair / equitable integration of developing countries into the global trading system, benefiting both Europe and its trading partners?”

Then at 12 a.m, we had lunch in the restaurant of the European parliament!

Sandra Zeres

Manon Zingarelli

Saturday evening,

After a long day of work at the High school, we came back to the sports hall by bus. There, we had to organize the “euro village”. We had to present a country of the European Union. Italy, Spain, Greece, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium were the countries represented by the other schools, ours was Ukraine. We prepared our stall with Soizic, choosing typical dishes and lots of different things such as pictures of the countryside. We wore yellow and blue clothes to represent the colors of the Ukraine flag. Unfortunately, the organizers lost one of our special main dish that was made by a Ukrainian woman, so we were a bit disadvantaged.

After the passage of the jury, we could taste the different dishes and look at the different stalls form the other countries. The best dishes were those of Italy, they made pasta, pesto and typical food of the Peninsula. Switzerland was the second best one, they had cheese and chocolate, it was so good. The Greek stall was the one with the best decoration, it looked amazing.

Then it was time to go to the party they organized. There was music and everybody was enthusiastic about it , we  all started to dance. We had lots of fun! The party began at 8p.m and finished at midnight, we were all really tired after that but we still had to work for our presentation. We went back to our housing; they only gave us the correction of what we had done all day long,  at 2a.m.... so we worked  to improve it until... 4am.  

Finally, after a long day of work and a great party, we could go to bed and have a little rest before the big day. We were all completely exhausted.

Magdalena Mechri; Marion Marseglia; Charlotte Salmon 1ES1

After eating the typical Alsatian dish (tarte flambée), we continued the « Teambuilding ». We did lots of games and activities which occupied us all the afternoon like rock-paper-scissor, energizers, giants/witches and elves, blind man’s buff. From the name of the games, you can understand that we did them, in order to create a team building and to get to know each other better. It was a good way of creating affinities with our committee and our new friends, the ones with whom we would spend time with, the whole weekend.

At 4 p.m we had our coffee break. It was a buffet with coffee, orange juice, water, cakes and apples.

Afterwards, the delegations were assessed by a jury composed of a male teacher and a female representative of the European Youth Parliament, to qualify for the National session in Switzerland. We had to wait for a long time before being called in. Fortunately, a very kind organizer called Kévin was with us, to give us some advice. Then, we went into a small room where the two examinators were waiting for us . They asked questions about our motivations, why we were there, and as they called it, “the magic question”: which word could define our group. We all discussed together, and we finally chose “enthusiastic”.

 DORN Mathilde, HAMMERLUND Hanna 1ES1

GOETZ Anne-Marine 1S3

Friday 15^th November 2013 :

7.45 am : We met at the lycée Leclerc. Some students  stared at us because we had suitcases instead of our school bags.  We are all here, off we go to Strasbourg!. We went to the station where Charlotte was waiting for us. Our train  came in. We tried to learn some words in Ukrainian like « Добрий день » (Dobriy dièn) which means « Hello » and some little things about the Ukrainian history too but above all, we had so much fun  talking together so that we didn't notice the time going by. There we were, at Schirmeck station. Loaded like mules, we realized that we were in front of cameras. The organizers took us to a bus to go to the festivity hall. I admit that it was quite exciting to be part of the students who had the opportunity to be here this weekend.

The session starts!

10 am :  Time to take the register : we filled in a form. Frankly I found it totally boring but we didn't have the choice if we wanted to get our badge. After all, I think that they didn't do it to get us bored, but probably to provide the necessary security measures involved by such an event.

Later : It was team-building time, that is to say time to play games to get to know each other. First, we played games all together and then with our commission. For example, we had to ask the others what their favorite meal, film, actor was, or we had to rank ourselves  in alphabetical order. The atmosphere was great and we had a good laugh !

At lunchtime : We ate « tartes flambées », an Alsatian speciality. Everybody was satisfied since there were « tartes flambées » with pickles, onions, diced bacon or mushrooms. Furthermore, we started to talk with other students who came from all areas of France (Lille, Dijon, Alsace) and we made friends.

Let's wait to see how the weekend turns out !

Emilie Mathis