With Britain on the brink of Brexit, 17 politics and language students showcased their debating and negotiating skills at the European Union’s ‘Euroscola’ event in Strasbourg.  600 students from across the 28 EU Member States were selected to become a Member of the European Parliament for the day to experience European integration first-hand.  Students voiced their concerns about current pressing issues, ranging from migration and human rights, to security and youth unemployment. Then, in multilingual working groups, students developed common positions which were put to a vote in the final plenary debate.

Politics tutor Adam Slade commented, “Our students were absolutely fantastic.  Their confidence in speaking in front of such a huge audience was wonderful to see.  Alex Ivey’s command of French was highly impressive, as were Jack Day’s quick thinking skills in handling unpredictable questions from the chamber.”

Izzi Riglia, second year Politics student said, “Although I'm currently studying the EU and have looked at the workings of the European Parliament, the Euroscola day showed me that learning about an institution isn't the same as experiencing it. For example, although I'd learnt that there are many committees for MEPs to join, it was only by taking part in a mock human rights committee that I really understood how these committees were run.”

Josh Nicholson, also in his second year of studying Politics said, “Being able to go to the European Parliament and debate in the chamber was a great experience - I’ll never get the chance to do this again; it is, after all, unlikely I’ll be an MEP given Brexit!”

The Euroscola event was captured on film and you can see the highlights here.