European Youth Parliament - Georgia

European Youth Parliament

European Youth Parliament – EYP is a unique educational project which encourages young peo-ple with different cultural backgrounds and nationalities to get involved in creating European youth policies, sharing ideas in order to solve the problems Europe and the whole world is facing today. European Youth Parliament (EYP) is a non-political organisation, the goal of which is to encourage independent social and political thinking among young people. Nowadays EYP represents the net-work of the 42 European Countries and 42 youth organisations, activities of which more than 30 000 young people are actively involved in. EYP functions under the patronage of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland. The Committee of Honour of EYP also includes such figures as the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. The organisation is supported by Heinz Schwarzkopf foundation. The typical activity of EYP is a session, in which delegates are allocated to the committees analog-ical to the committees of the European Parliament (culture and education, foreign affairs, employ-ment, human rights and etc.). Committees write resolutions, which are being discussed during the general assembly (aka GA), final part of the session.

Target group of the project are youngsters aged between 13 and 25, who have different status during the session. The Session has a board which is leading the academic part of the even. The President of the Session together with the Vice-Presidents create the topics under which the dele-gates start discussion and creation of the topics.

The Resolution Booklet is the main official document of the session, where the problems and solu-tions of every committee topic are stated. The board represents the central body of the session. They do final checks of the resolutions and lead the General Assembly.

During the session a huge role is played by the heads of the committees (chairpersons), who direct the committee works, to make sure it follows the EYP methodology. They give directions to the delegates, in order to collaborate on the resolution and lead their com-mittee activities during the whole session.

The group of journalists and the editor are also selected for the session and represent the Media Team. During the event, they provide the issue of the newspaper of the session and at the end of the session they make a final video-collage. The most important participants of the session, delegates are the “ideologists” of the session as the resolutions are created according to their ideas. Delegates present and defend their resolutions on the general assembly. They are the main figures in the voting procedure, where they decide wheth-er to vote in favour or against the other resolutions.

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European Youth Parliament - Georgia

European Youth Parliament started its activities in Georgia in 2007 as an initiative group by locals but the National Committee (official branch of EYP in a certain country) of Georgia was recognised as a full member of the organisation in 2008 (April), at the Prague International Session. The very first International Session of the European Youth Parliament was held in Fontainebleau, France in 1988. Since then, more than 80 International Sessions have been held all over Europe. The International Sessions bring together the most outstanding young people from all over Europe. All participants are the winners of a national selection process which involves several stages of Regional and National EYP Sessions.

First steps were not easy for new-founded organisation but the desire, devotion and experience of Georgian youngsters from International Sessions, and small financial assistance from supporting foundations served for the development of the organisation. British Global Opportunity Fund financed Georgian delegates, who participated in Regional Session in Poland, Latvia and Ukraine during 2007-2008. As a result approximately 35 Georgian earned necessary experience for developing EYP on national level.

EYP is the place, where one can freely express his/her independent opinion, discuss problem, which are acute in whole world, be tolerant towards different ideas, share different ways of life, culture and values. The result of this cultural-educational project is European integration, which is the core objec-tive of country’s foreign police.

Georgia managed to find its place beside the other European countries, which is proved by perma-nently increasing number of Georgian participants at International Sessions and Georgian delegates’ continuous participation in EYP events in different countries.

It is worth mentioning, since its establishment EYP Georgia has organised 4 Mini sessions, 10 National and 40 Regional sessions. 6 International Youth Forums took place in Batumi and Tbilisi for the past 7 years (2009-2015), in which many foreign delegates and officials were involved.

The European Youth Parliament enjoys the financial support of the local authorities, administrative bodies of the central government of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. European Youth Parliament Georgia is proud of the fact that in October 2013, National Committee of the EYP Georgia hosted the International Session of the EYP for the first time. In 2011 Georgia was granted the right to host the event. The session was attended by 300 young people from 36 countries. This clearly demonstrates how the organisation was able to achieve great success in such a short period of time. As a result, more than 1500 Georgian youngsters have taken part in the activities of the EYP Georgia. We are proud to confirm that 86th International Session of EYP in 2017 will be also organised by EYP Georgia in Tbilisi.

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The aims of the European Youth Parliament are to;- Raise awareness on European values;- Encourage active European citizenship and motivate students to get engaged in European politics;- Promote international understanding, inter-cultural dialogue and diversity of ideas and practices;- Develop the debating and other leadership skills of the European youth;- Inform the youth about current acute problems globally.

Problem Definition and Objectives of the Project

BASES: Batumi’16 - 7th International Forum of EYP GeorgiaThe Session is part of the project BASES. BASES – Building a Strong European Society is a project by the European Youth Parliament in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office. It aims at enhancing dialogue and mutual understanding as well as broadening the cooperation among civil society in the countries of the Eastern Partnership. In order to achieve these goals, the project stands on four main pillars.In November, 2016, EYP Georgia will organise its 7th International Forum in a beautiful city of Batumi. The session will gather round 150 youngsters from all over the Europe in order to discuss current Eu-ropean Issues. International forums, according to their format is the same as every single session held by the organisation but on a bigger scale. At the forums, different countries send their delegations to a certain event and the list of participants is culturally quite diverse. EYP Georgia holds International Forums almost every year. This time the event is hosted by the city of Batumi. This Session will last for 5 days and will include typical forms of EYP elements.

Session Theme

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With the challenges that 2016 has brought upon European Union, the global progress has seemingly been hindered by the outside parties. Evolving the Common Foreign and Security Policy has never been this vital for the future existence of the union. There are currently many things at stake, espe-cially so after Britain declared its exit from European Union just a few months ago. Unity and cooperation are the keys to overcoming the challenges of 21st century, as well as getting closer to achieving security, stability and growth on a global scale.

Strong economic and social development is what EaP countries are striving for. The European Union, on the other hand, by raising the standards for technological advancements within EU will serve as a setting trend for aforementioned countries. The EU initiative Innovation Union, focusing its efforts on technological development using public sector intervention of potential member states to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks which prevent ideas from reaching the market will serve as a ground for even stronger and more devel-oped political and economical alliance in a long run.

“Promoting Growth through Integration” is a theme that concerns all of the countries struggling to join the European Union. During these days, up to 150 youngsters will discuss the issues regarding the different types of integration of EaP countries to Europe and its society.

Promoting Growth Through Integration

Expected Evaluation The main aim of the project is to achieve youth’s high involvement in discussing important problems of Europe and our country. This will be a unique chance for young Georgians to make new con-nections with European youngsters. This project will give each participant the motivation to represent themselves and their countries on the international level. Main objective is raising awareness about issues regarding European values and the benefits of future integration into the Union. Post-session goals include having more youngsters in Batumi and other regions of Georgia involved in this and similar projects in the future so as to ensure the European path of the country in the young-sters. In the frames of the project, a lot of international participants visit Georgia that will also raise public awareness about our country in Europe, as well as serve as a platform for cultural exchange.The participants will advance their academic skills and take public political problems more seriously. English, being the official language of the organisation, will help young adults in expanding their spo-ken and written communication skills.

Prioject Evaluation Criteria The main criterion of success of the project is positive evaluation from the delegates. In evaluation forms, delegates express their opinions about following: knowledge gained during the session, new skills, quality of organising, and the acquired team working skills, motivation to be involved in EYP proj-ects in the future. High academic level of the resolution booklet, which will be sent to head offices of European Youth Parliament and European Parliament, is another indicator of the project success. All the officials present at the session will also be the subject of filling in the evaluation forms about the performance of the delegates. Supervisors will evaluate the work that was done by the officials’ team. International Office of European Youth Parliament which represents an administrative manager of the network, will also evaluate the overall success of the particular event.

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Session Programme

All the events in European Youth Parliament follow the principles of its methodology which includes different activities during days. Every session includes the main session elements such as: Teambuild-ing, Opening Ceremony, Committee Work, Cultural Events, Euroconcert and General Assembly (aka GA).

TeambuildingTeambuilding is one of the core elements of the session. It provides the participants with enter-taining and challenging ways of getting to know to each other and preparing themselves for the working days. During the teambuilding, partici-pants are challenged to carry out several activi-ties that are aimed at ensuring that every partic-ipant gets along well with their colleagues and that all the committees become a well-func-tioning team so as they were able to reach the consensus and fair discussion during the Commit-tee Work.

Opening Ceremony The Opening Ceremony marks the official be-ginning of the session. At the Opening Ceremony several prominent speakers deliver speeches to the session participants. The Session President and the Head Organiser will also address the participants and guests. At the International Fo-rums,, opening ceremony is usually attended by important guests who address the participants with inspirational speeches.

Committee WorkCommittee Work is one of the important parts of the session. Over the course of these 5 days, all committees will discuss their topics and eventu-ally produce a high-quality resolution, presenting their vision to solving the key issues of their topic. During this programme element, it will be crucial to work as a team and be fully engaged in topic, whilst at the same time keeping in mind the dif-ferent backgrounds and cultures within their own committees. In order to perform well in the Com-mittee Work it is of paramount importance to come to the session well prepared with research made on the topic and materials concerning the problem discussed.

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General Assembly During a day of the General Assembly all dele-gates will come together to discuss and debate the resolutions they have produced during the Committee Work. Following standard parliamenta-ry procedure, all resolutions will be presented and defended, then debated upon by the assembly. At the end of each debate, there is a vote basedsolely on personal opinions on the quality of the resolution. Therefore it is not only important that participants are fully on top of their own topics, but also have a firm understanding of the oth-er topics. The General Assembly (GA) provides a debate platfrom for all the delegates on each other’s committees and includes delivering de-fence and attack speeches on the solutions that committes have come up with during their work.

EuroVillageDuring this event every delegation (from 39 coun-tries) will present their own country by bringing national food samples, country flags, national mu-sic, souvenirs, costumes and other cultural objects that will contribute to representing their country proudly. During the Eurovillage participants will have the opportunity to share their own cultural heritage, thus, all participants are encouraged to bring what represents their country at its best possible manner. This Part of the programme serves as a platform of cultural exchange.

Euroconcert The EuroConcert is the ideal opportunity for talented musicians, singers and dancers to show-case their creativity and talent to the rest of the session participants. This is a gala which serves as a relaxing concert where all the performers are participants of the Session. During the Inter-national Forums, Organising Teams usually use Euroconcert to show the culture of the hosting country through inviting respective performers.

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