Model European Council 2012
By David McDonald & Josh Paul
Preparations are already well underway for the annual Model European Council (MEC), a political role play simulation which involves students from all the European Schools. The three day event in February 2012 will be hosted by the Patent Office in Munich which, incidentally, was also the venue for the very first MEC held in 1984. Five after-school meetings have been held to select the Culham representatives who had to prove their political knowledge and debating skills. Culham is fortunate to be able to send two ‘teams’ to MEC. This year we will represent Italy which should be challenging at a time of such political and economic turmoil and send a Press team of ten journalists who will write articles for their newspaper, reporting events as they happen and holding the ‘ministers’ to account in the regular press conferences. The Proposals which will be discussed at Munich are written by teams from other schools and closely reflect the sorts of issues being discussed at the European Council meetings in Brussels. The event is an excellent opportunity for the students to broaden their understanding of EU and global issues, to improve their public speaking and debating skills and to meet students from other European Schools in a stimulating environment.
The article written by Josh Paul, one of Culham’s journalists, is a report on one of the debates held in the preparation sessions.
UNIFORM SPEED LIMIT SUGGESTION LEFT AS ROADKILL
The referendum held yesterday in the European Parliament, rejected plans to harmonize speed limits across the EU. A very controversial issue, the show of hands indicating a deep rift in the parliament’s collective convictions.
The debate opened with speeches from both sides; the Pro side laying emphasis on the safety risk brought on by drivers not knowing the road regulations in other countries, and on the interesting assumption that synchronized speed limits may, in the words of the speaker Daniel Moore: “bring the EU closer together”.
Much heated debate was sparked by Gurion Geppert, speaker for the rejection of the plans, who announced that the imminent lowering of German speed limits, if the motion was passed, would have disastrous consequences for Germany’s luxury performance-car industry. This contentious point led to vicious attack, with the delegate digging himself an increasingly bigger hole in the ensuing argument.
Thankfully the debate was continued, when the subject was changed to the matter of car emissions, albeit for a very short time, before dialogue began to switch back to the focal point of the discourse, namely road safety. In fact, so much of the parley centered on it, that the fear arose not enough attention was given to the environmental side of the arguments.
Overall, apart from a slight hiccup at the end, the two delegates arguing for the motion seemed to have convinced a majority of the representatives; however according to various members of the parliament, their vote was decided by the last speech by Athina Mavrou, arguing against the proposal. Her final piece of rhetoric had arguably won the vote in favor of rejecting the proposition, ending the long debate in disappointment for those that had fought so hard to secure the plans of harmonizing speed limits.
|