Close to you: Role-playing in Strasbourg
201 views · Published 26 October 2012 · 4:52 · Indexed 12 November 2026
Channel: European Parliament · 2012 · News & Politics
They all met in a hemicycle in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Questions, debates, positions, amendments, consensus... Over a week, over 193 young people, aged 18-26, from 31 countries, recreated the functioning of the European institutions. The EP and Member States are represented in this large and very realistic simulation. Hi there. I'm Alexander Söderholm. I represent Germany as a minister. I'm Amy Mackinnon. I'm a Member of the European Parliament for the GUE/NGL faction. I'm Clarissa Kayser and I'm a Member of the European Parliament for the EPP. We're now into a voting procedure. No one is able to enter or leave the room. There is also no speaking during voting procedures and no signalling, like thumb up or thumb down. This is clearly stated in the rules of procedure. There's no joking here. The participants have been handpicked. Everyone takes their role very seriously. The aim is to create a European law. They have prepared for over two months in order to play their part in full. We try to make the simulation as real as possible. We actually debate real directives that the European Commission has presented to the Council and the EP. These are very real, very current, and through discussion we try to take these directives through the same process as in reality. So now we're meeting up with the legal adviser, because I need to know whether the amendment I'm proposing is able to be implemented into the proposal for the directive on PNR. If it is not, we have to withdraw our amendment. It's important to take all the amendments through the process of legal advice so that they can see whether it's possible to do this amendment or not. Alexander finds his answer during a coffee break. That's one of the favourite times for some people to try to persuade the political decision-makers to defend their interests. As a lobbyist I represent certain organisations and their interests. I need to persuade MEPs, members of the Council to vote in certain ways on certain amendments. The information we can provide is really essential to the MEPs. We really inform them and it's only right that they listen to what we have to say. We go back to the MEPs-for-a-day in the hemicycle to find out what they gain from being an MEP. I really wanted to come to experience European decision-making for myself. It's one thing to study it in a textbook in the classroom, but it's entirely different to be here and to experience it and actually do it first-hand. It's definitely interesting and I've really enjoyed doing it for a week. But it's really tiring and I feel there are other people that are more made for this. For me personally, it wouldn't necessarily be a career path I would like to pursue. The organisers have even gone so far as to organise simultaneous translation of debates in several languages. Students are providing the service, a first step into the world of work. This experience made me love interpreting even more. I loved it before, but now I really know that that is what I really want to achieve. I want to become a good interpreter, I want to facilitate communication within the European Union. This event was organised by BETA with the European Parliament Office in Strasbourg. If you want to take part in the next simulation, selection of candidates will end in December. The final word is from the President of the Parliament. The main conclusion is that politics is much more complicated than one would think when we sit in front of the TV. When we think about politics it always seems very simple. But when we go into the Parliament we see there's a huge range of different opinions. This is the programme of events at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Put it in your diary. EuroparlTV video ID: 25a953c3-32a7-416d-a985-a03700931fe0
