RSC Eichstätt 2019 | Academic Issue

Academic Issue by the Media Team of Eichstätt ‘19

FROM THE MEDIA TEAM WITH LOVE

Contents ECON 4 ENVI 6 JURI 8 LIBE I 10 LIBE II 12 SEDE 14 TERR I 16 TERR II 18 IMCO 20 2

The Media Team, from left to right, top to bottom: Paula, Arnoud, Andrina, Ben, Max, RĂłisa, Verona, Anastasiia, Jarne, Joris and Annelou

With a lot of pride, the Media Team would like to present you with our Academic Issue: a magazine of articles, infographics and artwork. Aside from looking at your topics from a different perspective, we hope it will help you explore the topics of other committees and inspire you to learn, and keep on learning long after Eichstatt 2019 ends.

Dear participants of Eichstätt 2019, We are now almost halfway through the Southern Regional Selection Conference of EYP Germany. You have all delved into your topics, researching and discussing them with your fellow Committee Members. We hope you explored the opinions of your peers, learned more about European issues and made friends along the way.

With love, The Media Team

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COMMITTEE ON

ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS (ECON)

Infographic by Rรณise Quinn (IE) 4

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COMMITTEE ON

ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY (ENVI)

Rather a little nobody then an evil somebody If you would ask every delegate if they use social media, at least nine of them would say that they do. Most people at this conference use social media and enjoy posting pictures and talking to friends online. Getting in contact with people from all over the world and making digital friends that you would have never known if we didn’t have social media. Ideal platforms of love and happiness‌ But is it just love and happiness?

Article by Arnoud Wijdeveld (NL) 6

A big problem in our online society is on the rise. People started using these platforms for discouraging others, making people feel bad all over the world. One might say: ‘’just delete their profiles’’, but this is harder then it seems.

Anonymity and the possibility to make new profiles makes it nearly impossible to solve this problem and there are still a lot of questions. But, the biggest question is: ‘’How did we let this happen?’’

bullying easily. This combined with the fact that victims usually can’t confront their bullies because of the anonymity of bullies, makes the life of the victim miserable.

A cause for this problem could also be internal: a person is more likely to start cyberbullying if they have been bullied in their lives before. Being victims of cyberbullying or offline bullying makes them think harassing other people is only something that is natural. Some individuals could bully only to boost their egos. These individuals simply harass others to entertain themselves and their friends.

Attention is what they want. There is a chance they did not gain it from their family or are even suffering themselves. Some are starving for the recognition of being powerful figures.

They remind others online of their social status which they believe are lower than theirs.

One of the possible causes could be the increasing rate of children and adolescents getting access to social-media. This could lead to cyberbullying becoming more prevalent in our society. Studies have shown that the amount of adolescents feeling abused or bullied online ascended in the last few years and has been rising ever since, resulting in our society becoming more aware of this problem every day and its harmful consequences for the users.

So, there could be different causes for this problem, but let us now get on to making social media a better place. A place where we don’t need to delete people’s accounts for bullying, because we prevented it by helping the bullies beforehand. A place where everyone can enjoy the positive effects of social media without ever seeing the dark side of social media ever again. It is a place of happiness and love after all.

Additionally, It has been proven that victims of cyberbullying are more likely to suffer from mental issues, because the bullies are often difficult to stop. Anyone could theoretically bully someone online with nothing more than a platform and WIFI-connection, resulting in situation wherein the victim can’t escape the

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COMMITTEE ON

LEGAL AFFAIRS (JURI)

European Core Values at Stake A recent change in several governments of the EU Member States threatening the rule of law has caught the attention of the European Commission overlooking justice reforms in the Union. Like a coke without a slice of lemon, a movie without Leslie Nielsen or a turtle without a shell, the European Union is a lot less appealing without its rule of law.

The principle ensures that everyone, including people, businesses, institutions and the state is accountable to the law. It is one of the main core values the EU was founded on, because it not only promises fairness and trust in the European legal system, but builds a mutual trust between Member States; makes a democracy function; and also has been proven to be a key factor for economical growth.

Article by Ben Vollerd (DE) 8

Recently the governments of Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria have been making changes to their national legal system concerning the Supreme Court, which the European Parliament has seen as a threat to these very core values.

Although Article 7 of the Treaty on the EU allows for both preventative and sanctioning measures, it rarely ever shows its effect. The mechanism described in Article 7 requires a high level of decision making and unanimity of the Member States which often results in failure.

into life intended to fill the open holes of both Article 7 and the rule of law framework.

However nothing of that nature was ever legislated, because of the European Commission’s decision to strengthen the existing devices instead of adding a third one. As an example, they have proposed to link the Member State’s funding to sanctioning measures in order to protect to rule of law while bypassing the difficult process of Article 7. Critics express their concern that this way the sanctions could hit the wrong targets like student funding.

In order to streamline this process, the European Parliament put a three-step rule of law framework into effect in 2014. Its first stage allows for a structured dialogue with the State in question during which a thorough assessment of the Commission occurs, followed by the posting of their recommendations to the states government during the second stage.

The third stage of this framework requires the Commission to overlook the Member State’s follow-up of the recommendation.

Upholding the rule of the law is one of the most important tasks of the European Parliament today, because it’s a core principle on which the future of the EU stands. The past has shown that the existing mechanisms do not show the desired effect on violation governments. Whether it is enough to expand on existing procedures, or if the European Commission should work out new ways to protect the European Constitution remains to be asked.

If none of this leads to the desired change in politics by the discussed national government, the Commission is then able to take the measures described in Article 7.

In 2016 there have also been requests to call an additional inter-institutional Union pact

While a coke without a slice of lemon still is great tasting drink the European Union without a functioning rule of law cannot work efficiently so this question is incredibly important and its answer will shape the future of our lives.

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COMMITTEE ON

CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS I (LIBE I)

Infrographic by Andrina Grimm (CH) 10

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COMMITTEE ON

CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS II (LIBE II)

Infrographic by Paula Swoboda (DE) 12

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COMMITTEE ON

SECURITY AND DEFENCE (SEDE)

Infrographic by Max Budding (NL) 14

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COMMITTEE ON

TERRORISM I (TERR I)

The flipside of Viral With the power of the internet, anyone can post messages that can become known to the entire world in a matter of seconds. However, it is very difficult to regulate what is uploaded to the internet. Over the last few years it has become evident that everything is capable of going ‘viral,’ including posts made by malicious organisations. These posts from the internet can be widely spread and are capable of influencing vulnerable individuals. This is why it is of vital importance for the EU to discuss the online spread of terrorist content.

Article by Annelou Snippe (NL), illustration by Jarne van der Poel (NL) 16

track down what is terrorist content.

The problem is, that internet is by nature cross-border. This means that content can be transferred from country to country and the problem surpasses national laws. The consequence is a fragmented network of legislation across different countries whilst the risks keep rising.

However, large social networks have already decided on a code of conduct in order to try and solve this problem together with the European Commission. This shows their willingness to collaborate. The EU is also funding several projects that try to better understand how Some might think that the solution is to simply terrorists recruit, also via internet. ‘delete’ the content. However, after a post has gained attention and gone viral, it can be diffi- It is very interesting to think about how the EU cult to delete it. In addition, the post can have could combat this problem, as it is very difficult to moderate all the content posted on the already had its influencing effect on individuals. This means that deleting a post after it has web every day. So, are we maybe looking at gone viral may not have the desired effect. On the wrong problem? Should we perhaps focus on getting rid of terrorism altogether? top of this, a very large amount of things is posted every day, making it very difficult to

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COMMITTEE ON

TERRORISM II (TERR I)

Infographic by Verona Bähr (DE) 18

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COMMITTEE ON

INTERNAL MARKET AND CONSUMER PROTECTION (IMCO)

Infographic by Anastasiia Tokareva (UA) 20

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The Media Team

Paula Swoboda (DE) Arnoud Wijdeveld (NL) Andrina Grimm (CH) Ben Vollerd (DE) Max Budding (NL) Róisa Quinn (IE) Verona Bähr (DE) Anastasiia Tokareva (UA)

The Editorial Team

Jarne van der Poel (NL) Annelou Snippe (NL) Joris Dietz (NL) Academic Issue edited by Joris Dietz (NL)

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