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Brewn March 24th, ‘11

CONTENTS

1,9% Editorial

23% Committees

0,1% Mr. President

35% Topics

17% All about Pilsen

23% Officials’ Fun

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PRESS TEAM

2008 2011

...it’s actually been longer than that.

Since 2007 we’ve been stuck with each other, wether we liked it or not. Istanbul proved to be irresistible to Leonie, whereas Ogulcan has become a frequent customer in Amsterdam - and even abroad, we can’t escape from each other. Same committee, multiple CJO teams, and now we’re in a stuffy hotel room in Pilsen - working together once again.

Some things do change. Rather than being jumpy and energised we now sit grumpily behind our computer screens, complaining about the smoking habits of the other (introducing the dilemma of a smoker and a non-smoker, in a room where it’s still allowed). When bugs fly in, Ogulcan is the first to leave the room or lock himself in the bathroom. Leonie just eats waffles and stares at the screen in complete apathy. Some things do change indeed. We feel old.

What message can we give you, other than the obvious “enjoy the newspaper!” and other exclamations alike? The editor’s words of wisdom of today can be captured in one very cheesy, corny and overly-used phrase: if it wasn’t for EYP we wouldn’t have met. And, if it wasn’t for EYP we would not have been here in Pilsen, bickering about typefaces, photographs and the ever more creative placeholders.

So, other than enjoying the paper - enjoy the session and the people around you. Who knows, you might see them again. And again. And.. again...

Your editors,

Ogulcan & Leonie

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Pilsen 2011 Press Team is proud to present the first issue of “The Keg” for your entertainment.

6 The Beast Within Mr Stamos Tahas

Funny, teddybear-like, very “allele” – many words to describe one man. People are whispering in corridors, on the way to toilets, in trams, clubs – everywhere they ask the same question. Who is Stamos Tahas?

JURIThe European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is a new tool for a wider participa-tion of citizens in public affairs that was introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon in the form of a regulation and will come into force in year 2012.

8

INTAYour t-shirts, your cell phone, most parts of your car, even your under-wear is made in China. This, how-ever, is certainly old news by now. How often have you been told to feel guilty for consuming goods that were produced in a country where human rights are abused systematically?

9 CULT10

ECONThere is a strong consensus about the necessity of a New Economic Govern-ance in Europe in a time of ...

11

AFETThe first wave of protests started in January this year in the north of Africa in Tunis and Algeria. Citizens of those states rose against their government because of the unemployment and too high prices of food. Protests began calm, but when 16 people were killed by the police the situation intensified. It has come to the point that the ...

13Adopted at the Spring Summit by the European Council, the main objective of the EU 2020 strategy is to bring the EU’s social, environ-mental and economic agenda to-gether in a more structured way. The idea is to mainstream some certain political objectives both at EU level, through the use of ...

AGRIWith the 41,3% of the total budget in 2011 being spent on the Agriculture and Environment, governments are ...

12

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ENVIThe Red List of the IUCN, the Interna-tional Union for Conservation of Na-ture, contains total of 5256 entries of threatened animal species. Specula-tion is however, that over million and a half animal species are endangered with extinction – a shocking realisa-tion. To counter this movement, brave environmentalists are fighting for the good cause, introducing numerous programmes aiming to stop, and even reverse the process ...

14

Pi lsenWhen you ask foreigners what they know about the Czech Republic, there is one thing that nearly always comes ...

15

EYP16

Welcome! If you are holding this paper in your hands, you are one of the lucky participants of the 13th National ...

17 Chairs , Journal ists & Organisers

For officials, EYP sessions always tend to start a bit earlier and end a bit later than they do for delegates. The Pilsen session began for the officials team at 13:00 on Wednesday.

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THE BEAST WITHIN- Alexander & Ekin MR. STAMOS TAHASFunny, teddybear-like, very “allele” – many words to describe one man. People are whispering in corridors, on the way to toilets, in trams, clubs – everywhere they ask the same question. Who is Stamos Tahas? The pressteam answers to this call for knowledge. We managed to catch Stamos and have a quick, late-night chat with him. This is what the legend said:

You seem like a very experienced EYPer. When did you adventure start?In 2005. 

Actually, I am dying to ask You one thing – is it true that you invented “Allele Kita Bonga”? Absolutely not. I guess you get that a lot.Yeah, pretty much.

What was the longest trip you made for EYP?It’s a tough question... I guess it would have been Norway. Or Dublin.

Best EYP food? Swiss cheese fondue.

Best party?(after a while) Stockholm 2008.

Let’s talk serious stuff now. Why did You decide to preside the session in Pilsen?Mainly because I could make it (laughs) Yes, actually I’m really busy right now, but it feels good to be here.Right, there is a rumour that you are a very busy vet.I’m still not a vet, I’m studying veterinary at Uni. Doing 5th year now.

Any favourite animals?Not in particular, I love them all. I guess I like some groups of animals.

Like hedgehogs?Yeah, they are nice. 

Speaking of – what do you think about your team? Are you happy with it, especially vice presidents?Yes, I know them pretty well, especially Jari. I am really looking forward to work with them.

Some final words for the delegates?I don’t feel like speaking big words here. The topics are quite challenging, though.

Looking forward to preside the session?It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.

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Julia S. of Spain, once Stamos’ delegate, now his fellow chair, summarizes him in a few words: “A down-to-earth person who cares a lot about people around him”. She also underlines that he is truly a very funny person, but nevertheless he knows when to separate funny from being professional. One thing is for sure, that the participants of the session are in good hands!

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The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is a new tool for a wider participation of citizens in public affairs that was introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon in the form of a regulation and will come into force in year 2012. It is a tool or a way for citizens to affect the work of European Commission – so every initiative is limited to the pow-ers of the EC. To become relevant, an initiative has to fulfill certain criteria. Firstly, It has to be submitted by a group of at least one million EU citi-zens from a minimum of 7 countries (one quarter of EU member states). Secondly, a citizens’ committee, con-sisting of 7 or more people from 7 or more countries, is responsible for the collection of the so-called state-ments of support. The citizens’ com-mittee has to provide full transpar-ency of the process. When fulfilling all the required criteria, the European Commission adopts a conversation with the organizers of the initiative.Generally speaking, the ECI gives a greater chance to public to influence political decisions and to promote public debate on legal issues, while at the same time supporting the cross-border, pan-European debate and exchange of opinions – some people could consider this as a step towards the common European identity.

There has already been another pos-sibility of influencing the EU politics directly, and that is by means of peti-tions. However, petitions are submit-ted to the European Parliament, while the ECI is meant to be discussed by the European Commission, and comes directly from the people.

One argument against the ECI is that groups expressing themselves might

be considered as unfair since only certain groups would profit from hav-ing their say on the EU level. Partially that is also the strength of the initia-tive – everyone can take part in the initiative if he or she feels like that something should be done. It does not necessarily mean that you are only a small group within your nation, instead you can connect with people with a similar mindset in the other member states. Lastly, all the ini-tiatives will be considered separately and independently in the European Commission.

In some Member States the citizens already have the possibility of start-ing a comparable initiative on local or regional level. On the other hand, the biggest obstacle that prevents ECI from a smooth implementa-tion remains that in a majority of the member states (one of them being the Czech Republic), there has not been adopted any single law con-cerning public initiatives so far. This poses a problem – since some of the Member States are quite well-known for their fear that EU-based legislation and action of any form might influ-ence the national sovereignty in a way that could harm the nationalistic feeling.

Hopefully, the European Citizens’ Ini-tiative will fill the “Democratic Deficit” we can observe in nowadays poli-tics. Hopefully, everyone will have a chance to have his or her voice heard, while no member states will object the right to express individual opinion on European level.

LEGAL AFFAIRS

Combating the Democratic Deficit

The European Citizens’ Initiative gives a greater chance to public to influ-ence political decisions and to promote public debate on legal issues.

-Petr

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Your t-shirts, your cell phone, most parts of your car, even your under-wear is made in China. This, how-ever, is certainly old news by now. How often have you been told to feel guilty for consuming goods that were produced in a country where human rights are abused systematically?

The aforementioned idea has been the strategy of many awareness cam-paigns in Europe over the past few years. Evidently, though, they haven’t exactly succeeded in decreasing the European consumers’ and industries’ appetite for cheap Chinese goods. On the contrary, trade between EU countries and China has steadily grown since 1985, more than dou-bling between 2004 and 2010, from 174 billion € to almost 400 billion €. Ironically, the same year that Europe-China trade peaked, the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded in Europe to Liu Xiaobo, an acclaimed opposi-tional writer and human rights activ-ist, who is currently serving an elev-en-year prison term in China. So, the

international community honours the life-long commitment of political activists by politely playing along with the regime that they sacrifice their freedom to oppose? What does this say about the priorities that Europe sets in its foreign relations? Is Euro-pean concern about human rights violations abroad only expressed through symbolic actions like giving out prizes, while in reality politicians keep feeding China with high-tech products and money so that it can increase the power of its autocratic and repressive state?

The list of grave human rights deficits in China is indeed disturbing: Viola-tions of freedom of speech, press and assembly, lack of religious and political freedom, torture, capital punishment and the question of Tibet are just examples. At the same time, China undoubtedly wields incredible political and economic power with which it can defend its inhumane policies. China is the world’s largest export economy and second-largest

trading partner behind the USA. Many would say that Europe can no longer live without goods from China and that trading with the People’s Repub-lic is a necessary evil. When confront-ed with such paradoxes, it is tempting to take a cynical view of all this appar-ent hypocrisy, or to become overly eager and try to affect a 180-degree change in the EU policy. The key is to find a middle way between the ideal-istic approach and the “we can’t do anything about it anyway”-approach, by identifying starting points where changes can realistically be made. Such points could include China’s ambitious plans to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). So far, European countries have opposed the People’s Republic’s accession bid by denying it the status of a “market economy”. European influence in the WTO about the accession plan could provide some political leverage for Europe’s human rights concerns in China. Another realistic platform to promote human rights could be the negotiations for a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) be-tween the EU and China that have been ongoing since 2007. The PCA is supposed to upgrade the EU-China Trade and Cooperation Agreement from 1985. It is meant to include com-mon political and social agreements, which could create some scope to press human rights improvements.

Whatever angle taken, one must al-ways remember to act carefully. As past experience has shown, a mere invitation to the Dalai Lama for a state visit can put an icy stop on dialogue with the fickle “Empire of the Sun”.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Europe and the Empire of the Sun-Randolf

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Throw your caps up in the air!CULTURE AND EDUCATION

- TeresaAdopted at the Spring Summit by the European Council, the main ob-jective of the EU 2020 strategy is to bring the EU’s social, environmental and economic agenda together in a more structured way. The idea is to mainstream some certain political objectives both at EU level, through the use of funding programmes and policy initiatives, as well as EU driven national reforms. Its aim is to improve policy functioning and also reinforce the European integration process by offering a stronger vision and govern-ance model.

Following the implementation of the 2020 strategy will be of utmost im-portance in the arts and culture sec-tor. In the last few years, the word creativity has become more promi-nent at EU level. One of the three ob-jectives of the European Agenda for Culture in 2007 was cultural and eco-nomic growth. New Council conclu-sions were published under the title ‘Culture as a catalyst for Creativity and Innovation’ in 2009, a year dedi-cated to these areas. On October 6th 2010, the Commission adopted its Innovation Union flagship initia-tive, which is vital for achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. It seeks to improve conditions and ac-cess to finance for research and in-novation in Europe, to guarantee that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that generate growth and the creation of jobs. This initiative underlines that ‘the creativ-ity and diversity of our people and the strength of European creative in-dustries offer huge potential for new growth and jobs through innovation, especially for Small and Medium En-trepreneurs’.

During the EC conference in Brussels

to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the European Capitals of Culture, EC President Barroso urged national and local authorities to ‘make sure that culture is firmly anchored in the long-term development strategies’. He also emphasised the importance of

moving towards an economy based on creativity, knowledge and innova-tion and that boosting the creative industries in Europe’s cities was a key element to the 2020 strategy. At the European Forum on Cultural Indus-tries, EU Ministers of Culture pleaded for putting culture at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy, and made some concrete demands concerning this.

The 2020 strategy states that growth should be inclusive, sustainable and smart. EU targets for inclusive growth include higher employment rates, which should be achieved by get-ting more people into work, espe-cially women, the young, older and low-skilled people, as well as legal migrants. Furthermore, it aims at better educational achievement, in particular the reduction of school drop-out rates below 10% as well as putting 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclu-sion. Inclusive growth also means that it must be ensured that the ben-efits of growth reach all parts of the EU and that people of all ages are helped to anticipate and manage change through investment in skills and training. Targets for sustainable growth concentrate on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, an in-crease in the share of renewable as well as higher energy efficiency. It wishes to improve the business en-vironment, particularly for SMEs, and help consumers make well-informed choices. This poses a great chance to social entrepreneurs, since their main aim is to further social and environ-mental goals. They use entrepreneur-ial principles to organize and manage a venture to achieve social change without measuring performance in profit but focusing on social capital.

Barroso urged national and local authorities to ‘make sure that culture is firmly anchored in the long-term develop-ment strategies’.

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ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS

Economic Governance: Europe’s Hard Choice- EkinThere is a strong consen-sus about the necessity of a New Economic Govern-ance in Europe in a time of complexity, uncertainty and crisis that has arisen from the global economic and financial crises, fol-lowed by debt crisis that Europe has yet to over-come.

The current system of eco-nomic governance has failed, and according to European federalist groups, needs to be overhauled. Unemployment is increas-ing in the European Union area, and European com-panies are facing more and more competition from companies from Middle East and Asia, and lastly, public accounts of most of the European countries are facing unsustainable defi-cits. Hence, being exposed to the need for reinforced economic governance in the Economic and Mon-etary Union (EMU), the Commission’s Communi-cation of May 12th propos-

es an ambitious economic governance package that highlights an alert mecha-nism through a scoreboard, preventive surveillance, the excessive imbalance pro-cedure (EIP) applying to EU Member states and an en-forcement mechanism for the Euro area members. The proposal also tackles the issue of the major mac-roeconomic imbalances between EU economies, with a strong pillar focused on the prevention and cor-rection of macroeconomic imbalances.

The President of the Euro-pean Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has confronted that a new balance must struck in the EU between joint and individual respon-sibility. According to him, the European Parliament and national parliaments both have a crucial role to play in legitimizing future governance structures, tak-ing into account the lack of legitimacy is considered a flaw in the old stability

and growth pact. Further elaborating on the matter, Van Rompuy said “In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion - it is a lie” on November 9th 2011, in Berlin. Moreover, the Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme is also in-clined to joint economic governance among some or all EU member states, confessing it as an inevi-table consequence of the creation of the euro.

On the other hand, Ger-many, France and UK seem to oppose the idea of an economic governance. Re-calling an extraordinary EU summit in October 2008, Lehman Brothers, the Bel-gian premier reflects his observation: “We saw the doubt in the eyes of Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel. You could feel that they were thinking that shar-ing the risks, the common approach is not neces-

sary because they were big enough as countries to save their own banking system”. The financial sec-retary of the UK, Mark Ho-ban rejected the motion on October 27th, 2010 in an-swer to Bill Cash’s urgent question that portrayed how the proposal would influence UK: “That treaty will affect the UK and the control over our sovereign Parliament in respect of its control over fiscal tax and economic governance of the UK”. The UK, Germany and France rejecting the idea of direct general EU taxes that was proposed by the European Commission in November 2010 also provide a better insight into the theissue when discuss-ing economic governance and the independency of national states, for the pro-posal would require EU states to give up fiscal deci-sion-making powers and to co-ordinate national budg-ets at the EU level to a far greater extent than today.

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CAP - not so common anymore?

Germany and France, as the main contribu-tors to the EU’s budget with approximate rev-enues’ share from all the 27 member states of the EU of 19,6% and 17,6% respectively.

- Kateryna

With the 41,3% of the total budget in 2011 being spent on the Agriculture and Environment, governments are reconsidering the share to the tradi-tional Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Thus the projections present that by 2013 the last mentioned share of spending is more likely to decrease significantly to 32%, following a de-crease in real terms in the current fi-nancing period.

A crucial reason this trend exists is that the well-developed countries that we the founders of the CAP, such as Germany and France, are not ben-efiting from the program any longer. They, as the main contributors to the EU’s budget with approximate rev-enues’ share from all the 27 member states of the EU of 19,6% and 17,6% respectively, are no longer interested in contributing to the €56.4 billion of the total budget for the CAP. Why in-vest in rural development elsewhere, if you have a knowledge-based economy yourself? Other particularly urbanized member states like Neth-erlands and United Kingdom are also much smaller beneficiaries, because of their comparatively small input to the economy of the agricultural sec-tor. No wonder that the CAP is often unpopular with these national gov-ernments.

For others Member States such as Spain, Greece and Portugal the CAP is highly beneficial as their econo-mies are agriculture-focused and presently, their financial needs for the development are far exceeding their revenue contributions to the com-mon budget.

In addition, the CAP has been roundly criticized since its foundation in 1957. Opponents argued that these subsi-dies, like those of the USA and other Western states, add to the problem of what is sometimes called ‘the For-tress Europe’, and the unfair competi-tion that results from the EU’s subsi-dizing its own economies.

Others criticize the policy of so-called ‘butter mountains’ or ‘milk lakes’, by pointing out that the CAP-mandated demand for certain farm products is set at a high level compared with demand in the free market, which leads to the EU purchasing millions of tones of surplus output every year at the stated guaranteed market price, and storing this product in large quantities, before selling the produce wholesale to developing nations. This development caused the claim that CAP price intervention is respon-sible for artificially high food prices throughout the EU, which restricts competition by non-EU producers. This however can be easily argued, as climate change, energy, labour, transport, changing eating habits and other factors have a strong influence on prices and are difficult to control or predict and thus are the core rea-sons for price-raising. Problems and criticism of the CAP do not end there, and issues like damag-ing smaller farm businesses through unsupportive and unfavorable subsi-dizing or environmental policies, are being discussed and further steps for the improvement of the CAP are be-ing made each day. Unfortunately, it may not be not possible to solve all of those problems and to satisfy the needs of all the stakeholders, as the EU as big and united as it is, it still consists of different states with their own economies and points of view.

AGRICULTURE AND

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

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It is Thursday morning and all the officials are slowly waking up. It’s all quiet in the hotel, but the air is full of energy like before a thunderstorm. Everything is ready and arranged, and the session is just about to start. One very important element however, is still missing: the most important group of people for whom the entire session has been prepared. The del-egates.

During the session, the delegates will play the funny games of teambuild-ing, and also face more complicated games that require more problem solving skills. After that, there will be more serious part of a session: Committee Work. Delegates in heir committees will discuss a variety top-ics and fight for their own opinions regarding these issues. Let’s have a look at one of them…

If you want to watch an inspiring and vivid discussion about a very actual topic, than the Committee on For-eign Affairs, chaired by Julia Solervi-cens and Jonáš Jančařík, is a great choice for you. So what can you get to know from them?

AFET is will discuss the revolutions which are happening this very mo-ment in several Middle Eastern coun-tries. This controversial topic is full of different points of view, and poses an interesting question for the European

Union: should the EU and UN par-ticipate in the conflicts and provide a help to countries of the Middle East or they should let them cope with their situation on their own?

The first wave of protests started in January this year in the north of Af-rica in Tunis and Algeria. Citizens of those states rose against their gov-ernment because of the unemploy-ment and too high prices of food. Protests began calm, but when 16 people were killed by the police the situation intensified. It has come to the point that the president of Tunis Zín Abidín bin Alí left the country and moved to Saudi Arabia – a victory for the Tunisian protesters. Tunisians liv-ing in France celebrated and came into streets to show their joy.

The revolution in Tunis inspired oth-er Arabic countries, where people were not satisfied with their non-democratic governments. It spread to Egypt, Jordan and of course to Libya, where the protests have es-calated the most. As a manifestation of protest, some people have even burnt themselves. The situation in Libya has led to the deployment of the forces of the United Nations. Was that a correct move? Does the UN, and do other countries have a right to solve problems of sovereign states such as Libya?

As a result of the recent developments in the aforementioned countries, a new problem arose. In countries of the Middle East the governments are falling, and so new politicians rise to replace them. There is fear of Muslim radicals, who allegedly aim to take part in the new government and en-large their influence in Arabic world. This raises concerns in the West. Can this influence be curbed somehow, or Europe can only watch and accept its results?

The Committee on Foreign Affairs has a lot of different facets to dis-cuss, and it will not be a problem easily solved. We will keep our fingers crossed for you in finding a solution of this difficult topic. Welcome to the session!

To invade or not to invade?

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

- Veronika

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ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY

The Red List of the IUCN, the Inter-national Union for Conservation of Nature, contains to-tal of 5256 entries of threatened animal species. Speculation is however, that over million and a half animal species are endangered with ex-tinction – a shocking realisation.

Committees on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety have a long lasting tradition in EYP. Pollution, the greenhouse effect and the Kyo-to Protocol are amongst numerous terms that every committee member should be familiar with. This time it is a little bit different. When speaking with chairpersons of the committee, Franziska Mayer (Germany) and Ja-cob Rybka (Czech Republic) for the first time, they were unable to find the right words for explaining the topic properly. What they explained is that the topic deals with endangered animal species. Driven by confusion and curiosity, the pressteam set off to investigate this issue further.

The Red List of the IUCN, the Interna-tional Union for Conservation of Na-ture, contains total of 5256 entries of threatened animal species. Specula-tion is however, that over million and a half animal species are endangered with extinction – a shocking reali-sation. To counter this movement, brave environmentalists are fighting for the good cause, introducing nu-merous programmes aiming to stop, and even reverse the process. A good example of this is the Przewalski’s horse. These cute, pony-like animals were reintroduced in nature: extinct

in the wild, the current population is born from horses in captivity. The Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse was founded in 1977 Rotterdam and helps zoos exchange animals to re-duce inbreeding and stimulate the reproduction of the specie. Many similar processes are still being intro-duced, for example for wisents (the Polish national animal) and Peregrine Falcons.

Are people more important than ani-mals, or are we guilty of damaging Mother Nature? Are NGO’s the an-swer, or should EU introduce a com-mon policy in this field? Is there any-thing that we are missing, perhaps an easy, obvious solution that will hopefully come to the minds of the European youth? What can we as Eu-ropean citizens do, and what can the European Parliament do? These are the questions that Czech delegates will be dealing with in the Committee on ENVI at the13th Czech National Selection in Pilsen. It’s a challenging topic, good luck to you!

Dying animals and greenterrorists

- Alex

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Pilsen is quite a marvellous city. They know it even in Brussels: it was chosen as the European Capital of Culture of the year 2015.

Welcome to Pilsen!

When you ask foreigners what they know about the Czech Republic, there is one thing that nearly always comes to mind: Czech beer. The best beer on the world.

What is so special about our beer, and what makes it so unique? The magic is hidden in the high-quality ingredients and precise brewing process - of which both we are very familiar with in the Czech Republic. In addition to our knowledge on how to combine the two, the best results are achieved.

Gold malt, bitter hops, sedulous yeast and the purest water are needed. Spend whole day in a brewery and keep a careful eye on the brewing process. Once the beer is made mature you can enjoy the fruits of your hard labour. But why are we saying all this? The pressteam sees a connection between making a good beer and making a good session. When you are doing something for EYP, you also have to find the best ingredients. There are all those amazing delegates, dedicated organisers, lovely journos and magnificent chairs and so many

others. Also, you have to work hard to make the session incomparable and unforgettable for all the participants. And after all of this is done, you can say that long quiet “Aaaah” just as you would after drinking a really good beer.

When you are in Pilsen, you should know something about the city and and its sights. You can visit the local brewery (dated back to 1842) to see the complete story of beer production. Its enormous underground cellars used for storing beer and house the biggest elevator in the Czech Republic (yes, it is the biggest – its capacity is 72 passengers!). The brewery currently produces 500 000

000l per year, a volume that equals total consumption of water of a small town. Pilsen is not only a city of beer. It is also a home to the famous Bory prison, which was opened in 1878, less than 40 years after the opening of the brewery. Is it just a coincidence or is criminality really connected to alcohol consumption?

If you want to train your brain after tasting beer, visit Techmania, the Regional Technical Museum established by the Škoda company and the University of West Bohemia (famous thanks to its Law Faculty). There are also many other interesting sites, such as the biggest Czech synagogue, the highest church tower in the Czech Republic of the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, the Culture House Peklo (The Hell), the Masarykovo gymnázium and the Bolevec student dormitories.

As you see, Pilsen is quite a marvellous city. They know it even in Brussels: it was chosen as the European Capital of Culture of the year 2015. Last but not least, Stamos Tahas, the session president appreciates the quality of the city: „Pilsen seems pretty much similar to Greece to me, so I feel comfortable in here.“

The truth about Pilsen- Veronika & Petr

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EUROPEAN YOUTH PARLIAMENT

Welcome! If you are holding this paper in your hands, you are one of the lucky participants of the 13th National Selection Conference of EYP Czech Republic. No idea why you should be so excited about this and what we are actually talking about? – Here’s to you, newcomers.

Who are all these people?The President and the Vice-Presidents: also called The Board, the driving force of a session, representation to the outside and heads of the officials team.

The Editors: mostly hiding in the Press Room but leading the production of the session newspaper – also this one.

The Jury: scary-looking but truly friendly people who will be assessing your work and determining who is to go to which session.

The Chairs: a bunch of lively individuals which you will get to know pretty well, group leaders and the ones who will add a finishing touch to your work. The Journalists: always on the lookout for interesting stories and funny pictures, can make you (in-) famous in the blink of an eye

The Organisers: mostly unseen, these busy bees have made the session possible in the first place and make sure everything runs smoothly

The Delegates: undoubtedly the core of this session, debaters with potentially world changing ideas

What is this?As you have probably heard before, the European Youth Parliament CZ is holding an NSC every year, to decide upon people who will go to one of two International Sessions. This year’s lucky winners will be going to Zagreb this autumn or Istanbul next spring. Three more delegations and outstanding individuals will have the pleasure to attend Regional Sessions all over Europe. These are on a smaller scale but equally thrilling.

How do I get selected?This is entirely in your power. Participate actively during all stages of teambuilding and committee work. You are hopefully well prepared and can contribute to the functioning of the group as well as a balanced, intelligent resolution. If you then take all that to the General Assembly on Sunday, where you are not shy to make points or speak in front of the crowd, the Jury’s attention is sure to be on you.

What if I don’t get selected?EYP CZ offers a variety of things for people who are enthusiastic about the organization. The best move you can make is to grab one of the members of EYP Czech Republic and they will tell you how to get rolling. Insider tip is the calendar here or the big one at www.eyp.cz!

EYP Czech Republic Calendar:EYP Days, starting in September8th Czech Forum in PardubiceInternational Visegrad Forum in Ostrava

What, who, where?- Robin & Teresa New to EYP, now what?

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CHAIRS, JOURNALISTS & ORGANISERS

Name: Niall Murphy

Role: Chair of AGRI

From: Dun Laoghaire (Dublin),

Ireland

Got here: By plane from Dublin

to Prague, got picked up by VP

Jonas Jancarik and stayed with

him for a night. Came to Pilsen in

the “presidential ride” with Jonas,

Jari and Stamos.

Name: Aleksander Malecki

Role: Journo of ENVI

From: Krakow, Poland

Got here: In a car from Krakow

with Michal Korzonek (chair of

CULT) and Magda Pietras (chair

of INTA), who almost crashed it

into a truck on the way to Prague.

Name: Kateryna Popovych

Role: Journo of AGRI

From: Kiev, Ukraine

Got here: By bus from Ukraine to

Warsaw – she had to wait 7 hours

at the Polish-Ukrainian border

crossing – and then from Warsaw

to Pilsen train station, where she

waited to get picked up by an

organizer. Total time: 30 hours.

Name: Stamos Tahas

Role: President and chair of AGRI

From: Thessaloniki, Greece

Got here: By plane from

Thessaloniki to Zurich, then from

Zurich to Prague. His inflatable

neck pillow burst on the way,

so that he couldn’t sleep on the

flight.

ARRIVALS

For officials, EYP sessions always tend to start a bit earlier and end a bit later than they do for delegates. The Pilsen session began for the officials team at 13:00 on Wednesday. The board members Stamos, Jari and Jonas summoned the idling chairs, journos and orgas by chanting, “We are here” - which after some confusion did round op the team the first afternoon of the session.

If you expect officials to have some sort of special, advanced teambuilding strategy, you are mistaken. Essentially, for chairs, journos, orgas and even board members, teambuilding is much like it is for delegates. The officials are also a group of people of who most do not know each other, and suddenly have to spend 24 hours a day together. The teambuilding consists of the same silly games and involves a lot of shouting, dancing and singing, all for the same purpose of making a bunch of individuals into a strong group.

For those who still don’t quite understand the aim of teambuilding, we should mention that it isn’t only the funniest and shortest part in the beginning of an EYP session, but it’s also the activity that glues the session and its participants together. That

is why officials, even though many of them have know these games by heart, still value the activities and “still get a kick out of it”. It is because they know (this is what officials know about teambuilding from experience that new delegates might not) that it goes beyond the formal period of teambuilding and never really stops during the session.

Teambuilding is when you play a game to relax during committee work; it is the first night at the club to party and even when you think of creative ways to present your committee’s voting result during General Assembly. You stop noticing the teambuilding after the first day, because you unconsciously keep trying to improve the atmosphere in your committee with everything you do.

No matter how ridiculous the songs, activities and games may seem at first, they have an incredibly positive effect on how you interact with the people you will work with later. What what worked for the chairs, journos and orgas yesterday, will hopefully work for all the cool new delegates in the next few days as they take on the challenges of committee work and resolution writing as team partners, and as friends.

Officials also start on a blank page- Kateryna & Randolf

The Keg | 18