EPE 2013: Medium Article in English

In the shoes of a MEP

Hundreds of kilometers away from Strasburg, students from the French Riviera become members of the European Parliament for two days.

The Eganaude Euro Parliament (EPE) has been taking place at Eganaude middle school (Biot) every year since 2010. With students aged 12 to 17 coming from various schools from all over the region, it is one of the largest “political role-play games” in Southern France. These events are very popular throughout Europe and the world, as almost every major town’s school hosts one. Be it Euro parliaments or Model United Nations, they gather thousands of students to debate over current political affairs.

This year’s EPE saw almost 200 students from Biot (Eganaude), Valbonne (Centre International de Valbonne, Nikki de St Phalle, Simone Veil), Antibes (Jacques Dolle) and even Monaco (Albert I) walk into the meeting rooms. They debated during two days, May 14^th to 15^th. Special guests included Mr. Arnaud, press attaché to the real Euro parliament, or Mr. Dermit, Biot’s mayor. Students had to wear professional attire and badges stating the name, party, and country of the MEP they were representing. Thus, Marine LePen and Harlem Désir could be seen debating various topics, like the Malian conflict or water protection in the EU, to name just two out of 12 issues. There was a twist to it though: 3 out of 7 commissions were held in Italian, the others in French.

The climax after the one-and-a-half days of debating and lobbying was the plenary session. Despite a high number of absent delegates (like in real life?), the debates were fierce and spectacular, especially thanks to the venomous interventions of the very persistent extreme-right non-attached members. As expected, the left-wing coalition (Social-Democrats, socialists, Greens, and so on) battled against a right-wing coalition (European’s People Party, Non-Attached, conservatives, etc…). Less expected however was the harsh opposition that the protractors encountered, even coming from within their own party. Ultimately, only one out of seven resolutions passed: ironically the one compelling the European countries to send troops to fight in Mali (in contrast to the real Parliament).  

Thanks to Mr. Cornu and Ms. Romy, organizers, the event was a huge success, as students went wiser than they came, now familiar with the stakes of euro-politics.

Philippe Pernot

For more infos, please visit EPE’s official website www.europarlement.org  or Philippe Pernot’s blog www.philippepernot.canalblog.com