European Youth Parliament

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The European Youth Parliament (EYP; in French, Parlement Européen des Jeunes, PEJ) is a non-profit, politically unaffiliated organisation, which encourages European youth to actively engage in the European Union's democratic processes and generally promotes active citizenship and cultural understanding. It involves 20,000 youngsters from all around Europe every year. It was established in 1987 in Fontainebleau, France.

The EYP Logo as of May 2006

1 History
2 Management
3 National Committees
4 Sessions
5 External links

[edit] History

The European Youth Parliament was originally a school project of the Lycée François-Ier in Fontainebleau, to the south of Paris. It is there that three of the first four International Sessions were held, starting in 1988, about a year after the idea took place.

It then developed steadily for a few years until it moved to Witney, Oxfordshire, in 1991, and was legally recognised as the European Youth Parliament International Ltd., a subsidiary of a charity created in 1992 for this purpose, the Fontainebleau Youth Foundation. The organisation experienced an enduring growth for the next ten years, its network counting an increasing number of National Committees and its activities becoming bigger as well as more numerous.

In the years 2001 to 2004, the EYP encountered various problems of financial character. On November 4, 2004, however, the European Youth Parliament was reborn due to a mutual agreement between the EYP's Board of National Committees representing National Committees, and the Heinz-Schwarzkopf Foundation. The EYP's status since then has been a programme of the Heinz-Schwarzkopt-Stiftung, and is hosted in Berlin, Germany.

The actual activities of the EYP never faltered during this period.

Since 2004, the EYP has introduced several reforms to introduce more transparency and democracy in its institutions and further enlarged its activities.

[edit] Management

At the international level, the EYP is governed by an international board, the so-called Governing Body. The Governing Body has six members elected by the National Committees and by the alumni of past sessions. A representative of the Heinz-Schwarzkopf Foundation is also a member.

The board is particularly responsible for the quality assurance of the International Sessions.

The day-to-day business of the organisation is administered by a hired manager, who has been Philipp J. Scharff since 2004.

[edit] National Committees

National Committees (NC) of EYP can be found in:

[edit] Sessions

EYP organises three international nine-day sessions each year. They are organized in different countries and all European countries are invited to join, not just members of the EU. Each country's national committee selects normally a ten-member delegation to participate in each session. Each session is composed of committee work on current European political matters and the General Assembly in which the committee resolutions are looked through, altered and approved.

Additionally National Committees of EYP organise several national and regional sessions every year.

As of Spring 2007, 56 international EYP sessions have taken place: