Session booklet
12th Dutch National Conference 10 - 12 February 2012 Amsterdam
Index Introduction
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Venues
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Practical information
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The Officials Team
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Programme
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Topics
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Different parts of the session explained
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Procedure General Assembly
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Placards
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Introduction Dear delegates, dear teachers, Congratulations once more on your selection for the National Selection Conference! The Nationals are the highlight of the EYP year in the Netherlands and we are all very much looking forward to welcoming you in Amsterdam on the 10th of February. Several people will be key in making this session what it is. The first are Head Organisers Barteld Nanninga and Tom Hofland, who have arranged every organisational aspect of this session and are your main point of contact in case of any questions. Also, we have President Milda Šabūnaitė (LT) who will lead the chairs team and guide all of us through the entire session, assisted by Vice-Presidents Zahra Runderkamp (NL) and Victoria Wilkinson (NO). The other session officials can be found further on in this booklet. This Session Booklet is your main guide to prepare yourself for the session. It contains the programme of the session, travel instructions and practical information such as a packing list. This booklet is not your only source of information though. We would like to point out to you that our website, http://www.eyp.nl, is updated several times a week with information on the session. Please visit the site regularly to stay up to date. During Committee Work, you will discuss one of the topics mentioned in this booklet. The school delegations will be split up in different committees for the entire duration of the session (so already during Teambuilding, continuing into the General Assembly). Teachers, please fill in the topic preferences of the members of your delegation in the form that is mentioned later in this booklet, before the 25th of January. You will receive the booklet with all the topics and topic overviews on the 20th of January. As the Nationals are one the most prestigious session in the Netherlands, we aim for a very high quality of these discussions and high quality resolutions. It is therefore important to prepare the topic! Make sure you collect as much information as you can on your subject so that you know what you‟re talking about at the session! Remember: you represent yourself at the session, so we expect you to form your own opinion on the topic beforehand. Also, we urge you to already prepare the topics of other committees. In General Assembly you will debate their resolutions and preparation will give you an advantage. You will receive a Resolution Booklet during the evening before General Assembly, similar to that of the Preliminary Rounds, which contains all the resolutions that will be discussed the day after. Furthermore, we have attached the Alcohol and Drugs Policy for this session. Please read through it carefully and make sure the delegates are aware of it.
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Before I conclude, there are some organisational details which require your attention. Please note that the participation fee is â‚Ź450,- per school, regardless of how many participants they have. This should be transferred to the organisation before the 25th of January. This booklet, together with the information on our website, should cover all necessary information about the conference. Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by using the contact details mentioned elsewhere in this booklet. We wish you a successful preparation and we cannot wait to welcome you all in Amsterdam for an incredible weekend! Wim van Doorn President of EYP the Netherlands
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Venues Teambuilding A.V.V. Swift Olympia Plein 31 1077 CL Amsterdam
Sleeping accommodation and Committee Work St. Ignatiusgymnasium Jan van Eijckstraat 47 1077 LH Amsterdam
General Assembly De Balie Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10 1017 RR Amsterdam
Please notice that we assemble at A.V.V. Swift on Friday morning and not at the school as in previous years! It can easily be reached by car (parking space is ample, but has to be paid for), and by train, traveling to Amsterdam Zuid-WTC, taking bus 15 from there and getting off at the Olympiaplein. From there it is a 3 minute walk along the east side of the Olympiaplein to get to Swift, which is located in the middle of the square.
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Practical Contact: Head Organisers: Barteld Nanninga Tom Hofland
+31624244555 +31630718954
email: nationals@eyp.nl website: www.eyp.nl Clothing For teambuilding on Friday we advise warm and comfortable clothing. For Committee Work and General Assembly formal clothing is required. Which means for the men: a suit with tie and formal shoes. For the ladies: a trouser suit or other formal clothing and also formal shoes. For the General Assembly it is very important not to wear jeans, sport shoes or other regular clothing. Do remember to bring special clothing for Eurovillage! Participation fee The participation fee for the session is €450,- per school. This covers the entire weekend, remember that dinner on Friday is provided by you in Eurovillage and you might consider bringing some extra money for drinks in EYP café on Saturday. We ask you to send the money to the following bank account before the 25th of January: Rekening nummer: 212274856 Op naam van: S.E.J.P.N. Bank naam: Triodos Bank N.V. Packing list - valid ID card or passport - OV card (if you have one – this is for transportation from the sleeping venue to „de Balie‟, if you want to avoid walking!) - sleeping bag - (inflatable) mattress - preparation and information on all topics - pens, paper and clipboard - comfortable clothing for Teambuilding/icebreaking - formal clothing for GA - clothing for Eurovillage - beverages, food and decoration for Eurovillage
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Teachers For the teachers there is the possibility to stay at the school, they do need to bring their mattress and sleeping bag. If they prefer to stay at a hotel this is of course possible, however, this is not included in the participation fee and not covered by us, if you are not staying at the school please let the organisation know beforehand. We will send all teachers a separate email detailing their programme during the session. Information about delegates and selection We select delegations based on their performances at the Preliminary Rounds. Consequently, we select the delegates, and not the school as such, to participate in the National Selection Conference. We therefore expect the delegations to consist of the same people that participated in the Preliminary Rounds. We would like to stress that it is also not possible to make last minute changes to your delegation for the session, for example when someone is ill. In the case that somebody drops out it is not a problem: your delegation will just participate with one delegate less. This will not influence your chances of selection. This year, we are selection individuals to participate in the International Sessions in Istanbul (spring) and Amsterdam (fall). For fora and other foreign sessions, we continue to select school delegations. Teachers will be informed separately about the individual selection system. Teachers, please make sure you register your delegation through the following form: https://docs.google.com/a/eyp.nl/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dHB3Z2tZdlhrSFh5Yn ZNak9KemdBd0E6MQ#gid=0. In this form, we ask you to fill in the topic preferences of the delegates and their availability for the International Sessions. Also, it will enable us to provide them with information about EYP as soon as they have became an alumnus of EYP the Netherlands. During the session the journalists will take pictures and videos of the session. By participating you give us permission to use and publish these pictures in EYP-related media. If, however, you would not like a picture or video that you are in to be published you are free to contact us and we will refrain from doing so.
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The officials team Chairs’ Team
Press Team
President: Milda Šabūnaitė (LT) Vice-President: Victoria Wilkinson (NO) Vice-President: Zahra Runderkamp (NL)
Editor: Lucy Bradfield (IE) Editor: Boaz Manger (NL) Video Editor: Anneclaire van Not (NL) Journalist: Ileana Lazea (RO) Journalist: David Teruel (ES) Journalist: Dean Connolly (UK) Journalist: Khalid El Ghoul (NL) Journalist: David Meijers (NL) Journalist: Myrna van Dijk (NL) Journalist: Luca Wartna (NL) Journalist: Alma Apt (NL)
Chair: Grainne Hawkes (IE) Chair: Dimitris Zacharias (GR) Chair: Panayiotis Ataou (CY) Chair: Lorenzo Parrulli (IT) Chair: Maria-Anna Grasl (AT) Chair: Niall Murphy (IE) Chair: Charif van Zetten (NL) Chair: Dirk Hofland (NL) Chair: Yves Haverkamp (NL) Chair: Karim Ben Hamda (NL) Chair: Moira Lanters (NL) Chair: Megan Wennekers (NL) Chair: Jara Verkleij (NL) Jury Head of the Jury: Leonie Goettsch (NL) Juror: Laurens Kraima (NL) Juror: Dan Brown (UK) Juror: Anar Kucera (CZ) Juror: Sandra Stojanovic (RS)
Organisers Team Head Organiser: Tom Hofland (NL) Head Organiser: Barteld Nanninga (NL) Organiser: Rosa Douw (NL) Organiser: Milan Petit (NL) Organiser: Dinah Meyer (NL) Organiser: Jacob Perk (NL) Organiser: Stan van Wingerden (NL) Organiser: Henok Ghebrenigus (NL) Organiser: Christien van der Harst (NL)
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Programme Friday, February 10th
Saturday, February 11th
Sunday, February 12th
10:00 - Arrival delegates 10:30 - Welcome and start teambuilding 12:30 - Lunch 13:30 - Teambuilding 16:00 - Coffee break 16:15 - Teambuilding 17:30 - Transfer to the Ignatius 18:00 - Teambuilding 19:30 - Preparation Eurovillage 20:00 - Eurovillage 22:00 - Party 00:00 - Good night
07:00 - Wake-up call 07:30 - Breakfast 08:15 - Opening Ceremony 08:30 - Committee work 10:30 - Coffee break 10:45 - Committee work 12:45 - Lunch 13:45 - Committee work 16:00 - Coffee break 16:30 - Committee work 18:00 - Hand in resolutions and dinner 20:00 - GA preparation 21:45 - Departure EYP cafĂŠ 01:00 - Good night
07:15 - Wake-up call 07:45 - Breakfast 08:15 - Departure to de Balie 09:00 - Arrival General Assembly 09:30 - Opening ceremony 10:00 - GA procedures 10:15 - Resolution I 11:00 - Coffee break 11:30 - Resolution II 12:15 - Resolution III 13:00 - Resolution IV 13:45 - Lunch 14:30 - Resolution V 15:15 - Resolution VI 16:00 - Resolution VII 16:45 - Coffee break 17:15 - Resolution VIII 18:00 - Closing ceremony 19:00 - Jury results
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Topics: Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) With growing recognition of the importance of cultural diplomacy: How can the EU broaden the scope of its cultural policies and successfully promote the Union„s core values, such as democracy, human rights protection and equality, through cultural initiatives? Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs I (LIBE I) A common European identity: a core European value or an out-dated concept? With the rise of nationalist right-wing movements across Member States, what actions should the EU take to reaffirm and strengthen its citizens‟ trust in the European idea, and create a more unified, inclusive and tolerant society? Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs II (LIBE II) The Occupy movement in Europe: an expression of direct participatory democracy? How should the EU respond to the dissatisfaction of its citizens, and how should it react to the growing activity of civil movements across Europe in order to ensure that the voices of its citizens are being heard? Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) Further expansion or more integration? Witnessing growing levels of civic scepticism towards the European project as a number of existing Member States struggle through severe economic instability, should the EU continue to expand its borders or should it rather focus on deeper integration of its current Member States? Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) In the light of the UK opting out of the recently proposed fiscal union pact, how much control should the EU have in regulating national fiscal policies? Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) Two years after celebrating the European year to combat poverty and social exclusion, 1 out of 7 European citizens still face the risk of living in poverty. What means should be taken to achieve efficient reduction and efficient eradication of poverty and social inequality across the EU? Committee on Climate Change (CLIM) With a global commitment to sign a legally binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions achieved in Durban, how can the EU maintain its leading role in future negotiations on the specifics of the agreement in order to ensure an effective fight against climate change? Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) With the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stating that the violence committed by the Syrian government against its citizens has amounted to “crimes against humanity”, how should the EU best respond to this ever growing crisis?
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Different parts of the session explained What is Teambuilding? Delegates who participated in the Preliminary Rounds have an idea of what EYP is. However, to prepare you for further EYP involvement we would like to explain to you what the differences are between the Teambuilding at Preliminary Rounds and the National Selection Conference. Teambuilding aims for, as the name states, the building of a team. Delegates will be divided into eight different committees. You are placed with people from other delegations that you have never met before. Teambuilding serves several purposes. Like Ice Breaking, one of the aims is to make you feel more comfortable in your committee and to get to know the other people in the group. But Teambuilding also aims at improving the communication and teamwork between you and your fellow delegates. The chair will guide this process, he or she will play different kinds of games to get to know each other, build inter-committee trust, improve brainstorming capabilities and make you feel more comfortable with giving your opinion. What is Committee Work? Committee Work is quite similar to Introduction to Committee Work at the Preliminary Rounds. Your Committee is assigned a topic on a specific current European issue. Your task is to write a resolution about this given topic. The resolutions you write at the Nationals are in the same format as the resolutions at the Preliminary Rounds. A resolution is a collection of statements of what the problem is, solutions to the problem and how you would like to implement these solutions. Essential for Committee Work is that you need a consensus within the committee about everything you write down in the resolution. Equally important to note is this: you represent your own opinion within EYP. It is therefore very important to think what your personal view is on a topic and express that view to others. You try to convince others, but also be open for others opinions, for someone else might have ideas that you never thought of that change the way you look at the topic. Your goal as a committee is to come as close to finding a solution for the problem as you possibly can. It is important to be well prepared for the Committee discussions so that you can make relevant contributions on the topic. What is General Assembly? There is little difference between General Assembly on Preliminary sessions and the National session. The only real difference is that instead of a prewritten resolution by someone else, you now defend the resolution your committee made during Committee Work. This also means that you will be sitting with your committee (and not your delegation!) during the General Assembly. Also, your time to prepare speeches is limited to one evening, night and morning between Saturdayâ€&#x;s Committee Work and Sundayâ€&#x;s General Assembly. Because of that last element, it is of vital importance that you not only study your own topic, but
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also gain in-depth knowledge on the other topics, so you can form an opinion before the session begins. This will give you an advantage during GA. You will probably feel more comfortable now than you did a few weeks ago with giving your opinion and we hope that you learned from the previous experience to give even better constructed points, better speeches, keep moving the debate forward by responding more to given points and avoiding repeating what is already said, and avoiding giving hollow statements without any arguments or being disrespectful to other participants. We want the level of debate to be even higher than at your previous session, and this can only be achieved by you, as participating delegates, by being better informed and prepared on your topics. What is Eurovillage? On Friday evening we will have a dinner prepared by you. Delegations are assigned to a European country and you are asked to prepare dinner in style of this specific country. For example for The Netherlands: hotchpotch (stamppot), small pancakes (poffertjes), gouda cheese, chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag), etc. All delegates are asked to wear traditional clothes of that country and to bring attributes to decorate their country tables. If everyone does their utmost best it will be a festivity to never forget. Keep in mind that you prepare dinner for 13-14 people, this is the size of your committee, plus teachers and officials. In the following, you will be able to see which country your delegation is supposed to represent during Eurovillage: France Stanislas College Belgium St. Ignatiusgymnasium Spain Tabor Werenfridus Sweden Barlaeus Gymnasium Ukraine Erfgooiers College Italy RSG Pantarijn MHV Greece Marnix College Switzerland Revius Lyceum Ireland Berlage Lyceum Turkey De Breul The United Kingdom Christelijk Lyceum Zeist Germany Mencia de Mendoza Finland Cals College Austria Metameer
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What is EYP cafÊ? On Saturday night all delegations and alumni will go to a bar in Amsterdam. As we all know getting to know each other works best with a drink and a chat. We would like to remind you that underage drinking is not permitted and could have serious consequences. What do you mean when you’re talking about becoming an alumnus? EYP the Netherlands is run by alumni. When you have participated in the National Selection Conference you automatically gain this status. As an alumnus, you are recognised as a member of the European Youth Parliament. You are registered in our mailing list and receive regular updates about all kinds of events: sessions, parties, the EYP alumni weekend, etc. Not only about Dutch sessions, but also about session in other countries. For all these events you can sign up. For some, you have to selected to take part, for others you are free to participate. Usually you have to pay a participation fee when going as a delegate, but not if you go as an official. All these activities are on an individual basis. EYP the Netherlands organises the Preliminary Rounds and the National Conference for which you can apply as well. EYP The Netherlands relies on alumni and their dedication to the organisation to organise sessions. We encourage all participants at the upcoming National Selection Conference to become actively involved in our organisation to help EYP the Netherlands grow!
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Procedure General Assembly The total time set aside for one debate will normally be 40 minutes, though this will subject to time constraints. The setting of debate time, and changes in debate time, are entirely at the discretion of the President and their Board. Each debate is the main responsibility of the proposing committee – this committee will defend the resolution, and as such should always be given enough opportunities in the debate in which to do so. 1. Reading of the Operative Clauses. One member of the proposing committee will read out the Operative Clauses. 2. Defence Speech. This will be followed by a three-minute Defence Speech from a member of the proposing committee. 3. Attack Speech. There will then be three minutes in which an Attack Speech can be made by another committee or committees. 4. Points of Information To be raised to make a factual query about a term/phrase in the resolution or in what someone has said. 5. Open Debate. The rest of the time (approx. 30 minutes) is set aside for open debate among delegates. If you wish to make a point, raise your committee sign and wait to be recognized by the Board before taking the floor. 6. Sum-up Speech. 3 minutes to sum-up the debate by 1-2 speakers from the proposing committee. 7. Voting Procedure Following the completion of general debate, delegates will be given the opportunity to vote on the resolution in the form of for, against and abstentions. Chairs will collect the votes. A Board member counts the votes and announces the result after the debate on the following resolution. Each student votes according to his or her own convictions. Please note: the passing/failing of a resolution will not affect the juryâ€&#x;s decision(s).
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Placards Committee Placard: To be raised each time a committee wants to make a point/speech. Points of Information: Points of Information are points made by delegates requesting clarification, explanation or definition of a word or phrase in a resolution only. They should not be used to attack or defend the speaker or the resolution. Point of Personal Privilege: The privilege sign should be raised when a delegate cannot hear or understand what has been said. In this case the President may interrupt the speaker to recognise the point. Direct Response: Allows for a direct response to the most recent point with priority over other Committeeâ€&#x;s points. This placard may be used by each Committee 1 time during each open debate. Point of Order: If the board makes a mistake in the order of the procedure this placard can be raised to make them aware and let them correct their mistake.
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