The Foreign and Commonwealth Office hosted the European Youth Parliament (EYP) South East regional conference on the 22nd April in London. United Kingdom has been participating in EYP since 2000 and is hosting one of the three annual international conferences in Liverpool in July this year. 32 countries are currently active in EYP with Georgia being formally recognised last week. The countries are allocated seats in the international conferences according to how many students they have managed to activate; currently the UK holds largest share with 42 delegates but according to the EYP UK President Richard Royal the aim is to increase the number of delegates further.
The European Commission Representation in the UK and the UK Office of the European Parliament were supporting the event along with the FCO. Commission Political Officer Christian Krappitz was a part of the jury on the day.
The issues of debate varied from the Kashmir conflict and terrorism to regional funding and European Capital of Culture programme. The conference honoured the European Union's commitment to promoting multilingualism and the official languages of all EYP meetings are English and French. Although English remains predominant, one of the discussions on the day was held solely in French. The international session in July will also see a committee solely conducted in French. Delegates were also always free to express her or himself in an alternative language, and, Royal adds, "I have even learnt some Serbian by participating the international sessions, and last year a girl addressed the committee in Afrikaans!"
Royal is part of the alumni and has taken part in 13 international EYP conferences held across Europe; "the most Northern conference I have been to was held in Stavanger, Norway and the most Southern in Thessaloniki, Greece". He sees the function of EYP not only educational but also promoting Europe and the values of the community. "The 14 regional events guarantee that a maximum amount of delegates are able to take part and experience public debating but intense competition for the places in the national and international meetings guarantees that the UK EYP sends very highly talented and well prepared delegates to represent them abroad". He adds that the value of EYP is also empowering people in expressing themselves by giving a chance to learn public speaking and debate; the personal development of an individual is visible, and even quieter students really start expressing themselves through participating in the debate.
The EYP UK is run by its alumni with 102 active members currently. Many of them also help organising events abroad. The central organisation sends an information package to schools wanting to participate, and the Outreach Programme guarantees a training visit to almost all those requesting. Special attention is given to activating state schools and the participation is roughly 50%-50% from state and private educational sector.
The 58th International Session of the European Youth Parliament is held in Liverpool, the European Capital of Culture 18th -27th July 2008.