“The public debate on the future of Europe in general and the work of the Convention  in particular, has been going on for some time in the media, in conferences and debates organised by governmental and non-governmental organisations, among politicians and simple citizens. It is sometimes highly optimistic, sometimes critical, sometimes pessimistic or just negative. The fact is, that it is always a reaction on an event that already has taken place, an analysis of decisions already made.

 But how would you behave on the place of the real Convention members at the time of real Convention meeting? Would you be able to reach a compromise facing 104 different positions of other individuals with their own experience and perspective of the world? Would you be able to realise your own ideas? The simulation game gives young people the possibility to enter the situation and find it out.”

                                                                                                                                                       (Invitation letter) 

Simulation game on the European Convention

Copyright UEF Vienna

Authors:

Florence Bibet

Polina Mosheva

Peko Baxant

Bruno Booms

Philipp Agathonos

Daniel Gerer

Focus:  The simulation game on the European Convention was focused on the discussion on Europe’s role in the world.

Roles: Each participant at the registration on Thursday received a role containing the position of the Convention member on Common Foreign and Security Policy, European Security and Defence Policy as well as external economic relations of the Union, together with his/her CV.

The role was a result of an analysis of the contributions, speeches and amendments of the draft documents made by the members of the Convention, as well as some answers to short questionnaires sent to them (unfortunately less than 15% of the members replied to us).

Working groups

Three working groups were created:

 WG 1 “External Action”, mandate ,  final document,  evaluation by the chair of the group Mr Sipan Sedeek

WG 2 “Defence”, mandate,  final document,   

evaluation paper by the chair of the group Mr Károly Vegh

WG 3 “External Economic Relations”, mandate,  final document,  evaluation paper by the chair of the group, Mr Marko Mravljak

 each with the mandate based on the real mandate of the Convention working groups, simplified. The mandate of the working group External Economic Relations included questions discussed in the WG External Action of the Convention.

Preparation

The participants were previously notified in which way they have to prepare for the participation in the Simulation Game – useful links, working group mandates, working methods (rules of the game), feedback paper which included basic information about the topics to be discussed in the game, were sent via Internet. The brochures of the European Commission on this topics were given on the spot. This insured a fruitful, interesting and detailed debate.

Participants

105 participants from 10 European Countries took part at the game. The evening programme offered numerous possibilities to get to know each other in a formal and informal way and contributed to intercultural learning, giving the participants the chance to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds, overcome prejudices and become good friends.