2001–2011 - The First 10 Years

While the roots of EYP Finland go back to the 1990s, the modern organisation was established in 2001 – on 15 June, specifically – by a small group of committed volunteers. EYP Finland, the international EYP network, and indeed the world were all quite different 20 years ago. EYP Finland’s starting capital, for example, was €60; the EYP as a whole was still a much smaller, more school-centred project; and the world had not yet experienced 9/11, the prolonged financial crises, or the emergence of many of the technologies today’s EYPers take for granted.

For the first few years, EYP Finland’s activities revolved around the annual National Session and a number of training events, training becoming one of EYP Finland’s strengths early on. Some organisational practices may now seem quaint. For example, National Sessions were originally organised by one of the two school delegations selected to attend an International Session, whereas the other delegation edited EYP Spirit, EYP Finland’s membership magazine. (EYP Spirit was discontinued in 2009; EYP spirit

lives on.) The first Regional Sessions, now a hallmark of EYP Finland’s annual event calendar, were organised in 2008.

Internationally, EYP Finland has always been well known. The 1st Baltic Sea Regional Forum, organised in Tampere in 2006, was followed by Helsinki 2009, the 62nd International Session of the EYP – a true culmination of EYP Finland’s development up to that point. (As an anecdote made more interesting by the past two years, the swine flu pandemic caused some issues for the session.) In 2010, EYP Finland also hosted the first Training for EYP Trainers.

In its first 10 years, EYP Finland grew and was developed through the efforts of exceptionally committed volunteers. For many, EYP became more than just a hobby. This is something that has not changed. In 2011, we believed the next 10 years promised to be at least as bright as the first 10. The following pages show that we were right.

2001–2011 are covered in more detail in “History of European Youth Parliament Finland, 2001–2011”, published for the organisation’s 10th anniversary.