This webpage contains all organisational information, academic content and media output of Breda 2021, a Regional Selection Conference of EYP The Netherlands. The event will take place 27th to 28th of November in the city of Breda and the session is head-organised by Eva Wildöer and Fleur Kiliaan.

Hello everyone!!

We have already written to all of you a few times before, however this time we are officially welcoming you to our session: the Regional Selection Conference of Breda 2021!

The two of us together have been planning and organising this session for a few months now and we are beyond excited to see the session take form more and more. Together with our amazing organising team, we will be in charge of the organisational aspect of the session, making sure everybody is happy and fulfilled!

With our organising team we want to make the session run as smoothly as possible and make everybody feel at home. This aligns with our vision for the session Shifting lenses: Planting the seeds of progress. The goal of this team is to help guide everyone throughout the session regarding food, transfers, administrations and much more! Our vision is to make this session as inclusive as possible, to make everyone feel welcome and respected and to allow room for kindness and acceptance.

Especially since Covid happened it is exciting to gather with so many people again in order to create an amazing session. We are looking forward to seeing happy faces in real life again!!

We hope that all of you are just as enthused as we are!!!

Lots of love,

Eva and Fleur, Head-organisers of RSC Breda 2021

Dear participants, 

I am extremely happy you will be joining us in Breda and would like to give you a warm welcome to the session! You have every reason to be excited about this upcoming adventure, filled with fun, new friendships and self-development. It is my absolute pleasure to be leading the team the Delegates will be in closest contact with! We have been working hard to ensure you have the best experience possible, polishing the topics that will be discussed at the session and preparing to bring fun times for all. We will pay special attention to participants’ wellbeing, producing high quality yet easily understandable academic content and making sure everyone has a good time and gets something out of this experience, be it on a personal or academic level. 

EYP is a place for trial, failure, learning, discovering, improving and growing, so I highly encourage you to approach this opportunity open to pushing and exploring your skills and boundaries. The academic team will be by your side to support you every step of the way. We hope we will succeed in making all of you feel comfortable enough to show your true self and let your potential shine through! 

Wishing you all the best and see you soon! 

Anastasia President of RSC Breda 2021

Dear participants,

I am excited to see everyone at the session and take cool pictures and videos of everyone. My media team will design cool projects where you can participate and create unforgettable memories. The aim is to have a great media output that will capture the session’s atmosphere and keep it alive for many years after the session. 

We are lucky to have the chance to have a physical session after 1,5 years of online sessions. It almost feels unreal to go back to the old format where everyone will gather in person and meet each other in real life. I believe that this session will be special and unforgettable just because it will be the first physical session for many people and others will appreciate it much more because they have been missing the old format. 

The Media Team is beyond excited to capture these special moments, therefore, our cameras are ready, and we will see you soon in Breda!

kindest regards,

Zhina Editor of RSC Breda 2021

Dear participants,

I want to start off this statement by wishing all of you a warm welcome to the session. If you would have asked me when I started EYP where I would see myself in my EYP career in a couple of years, my answer would not have entailed writing these words of welcome as Head of Jury. That said, I hope Breda 2021 is as much of a transitional experience for you as it was for me two years ago. I hope you get the opportunity to learn, the opportunity to grow, and the opportunity to discover yourself just that little bit more.

I cannot wait to see you in the wonderful city of Breda!

Cheers!

Heleen, Head of Jury of RSC Breda 2021

On behalf of the organising team, it is our great pleasure to officially welcome you to Regional Selection Conference of Amsterdam 2021. We are beyond excited to be able to organise this session we have been working on for you. Within a few weeks, we will be able to welcome you to one of the most wonderful cities of The Netherlands, Amsterdam.

GA ORDER

DEVE / FEMM II / coffee break / ECON / lunch / FEMM I / ENVI / coffee break / LIBE / Closing Ceremony

Welcome

Dear delegates and officials, we welcome you to Amsterdam 2021, Regional Selection Conference of EYP the Netherlands. As the Organising Team of Amsterdam 2021, we prepared this travel information as a guide on how to get to Amsterdam! If you have any further questions or difficulties related to your travels or the session in general, feel free to contact the Delegate Support Organiser ([email protected]) or the Officials Support Organiser ([email protected])

When?

Officials: Friday November 12th 2021 10:00 AM

Delegates: Saturday November 13th 2021 09:00 AM

Where?

This Regional Selection Conference will be held at the school, the Amsterdams Lyceum. The delegates and the officials will be expected at this venue: Valeriusplein 15, 1075 BJ

How to get to the venue when you are traveling by…

By plane

From Amsterdam Schiphol Airport: 

Take the bus 397 (heading to Elandsgracht busstation Elandsgracht) and get off at the bus stop Emmastraat. Start walking towards your right, in the direction of Carla van den Brink, continue for 6 mins until you see the school on your left.

From Eindhoven Airport:

Take the bus 400 (heading to Eindhoven station), then take the train heading to Schiphol Airport and get off at stop Amsterdam South. You can also take the train heading to Alkmaar and get off at Amsterdam Central Station. For further information on traveling from these stations, see more below.

By train

Amsterdam Central:

Take tram 2 (heading to Nieuw Sloten), get off at the stop Valeriusplein and walk in the direction mentioned in the screenshot.

Amsterdam South

Take the bus 15 (heading to Station Sloterdijk) and get off at the bus stop Haarlemmermeerstation. When you exit the bus stop, start heading towards the roundabout and at the roundabout take the third exit into the Cornelis Krusemanstraat. Continue walking in for 5 minutes and you will see the school on your left. 

Amsterdam Sloterdijk

Take the bus 15 (heading to Station South) and get off at bus stop Haarlemmermeerstation. Follow the same directions described at Amsterdam South. 

By international bus:

If you plan to travel internationally by bus, there is a Flixbus stop at Station Sloterdijk.

By car 

Since the parking fees are really high in Amsterdam, we would advise you to use public transportation as much as possible. However, if you do want to drive, we can suggest you park at the Olympisch Stadion car park, which is a 17 minute walking distance or you can take one of the buses 347, 357 or 397. Additionally, you can find slightly cheaper options through Park and Ride (P+R) car park, however you should see and check the conditions yourself.

Departure

Our session will come to an end around 18.00 on Sunday the 14th of November.

Tips:

Although these include some of our recommended ways of getting to the venues, we strongly advise our participants to download and use public transportation apps “NS” and “9292” as they will provide you with the best and fastest routes. For international travelers that want to travel by train, we recommend using the “NS International” app which will help you find your train. All of these apps are free and can be both downloaded from the App Store and Google Play. 

Word of welcome from the President

Dearest delegates,

It is my utmost pleasure to welcome you to Amsterdam 2021, Regional Selection Conference of EYP the Netherlands. We have been working on this event for a few months now, and I am thrilled to finally welcome you, the delegates, on board this journey. You are what the session is all about so I am delighted that it is now time for you to get involved.

The European Youth Parliament is an organisation that is run by young people, for young people. People just like you and me. People that try their best to continuously improve the organisation and the world around them. People that were once in your situation, not sure what they were getting themselves into. I hope you will like this experience as much as all these people have before you and that you are able to take as much out of it as I have. EYP has so much to offer, from travelling opportunities and many great new friends, to skills in event management, group dynamics and leadership. 

You will be able to experience all this for yourselves in the time to come, but for now, I hope to provide you with a session that shows you what EYP is about and that tickles your interest to continue with it. Before joining us in Amsterdam, I’d like you to take a moment and think about what it is that you expect from this session. What are you excited, nervous or intrigued about? Is there anything that you want to work on, either personally or professionally? Take these thoughts with you to the session, and let the experience come to you. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that anything is possible in EYP, as long as you keep an open mind. 

I hope you are as excited as we are and that you are ready to take everything you can from this experience. There is a team of wonderful people ready to help you with that in any way they can. 

On behalf of the chair’s team,

Dorith Blijleven

President of Amsterdam 2021

Word of welcome from the Head of Jury

Dear participant, 

Welcome to Amsterdam 2021! After over one and a half years of digital EYP, the time has finally come for us to gather physically all around Europe again. I am beyond excited to return to physical EYP now that the pandemic is slowly letting us free of its grip, and wish, alongside the rest of the leadership, to guarantee a smooth transition from digital to physical sessions. 

The jury often appears rather intimidating in the eyes of Delegates, and it might be tempting to focus on trying to impress us at the cost of getting everything out of your EYP experience. 

As the Head of Jury of the session, my goal is to foster an environment of openness, transparency, and growth for Delegates and Officials alike and show that the jury, like everyone else, is just a group of young people doing something they enjoy. At Amsterdam 2021, the jury team will not only observe and assess the performance of others, but also critically reflect upon their own work. The jury is not immune to the influence of cognitive, personal, and social biases, which is why the process of the jury will begin by admitting that we cannot step outside of the event and fulfil the position of perfectly neutral outside observers. This realization will help us be more mindful of the various enacted conceptual constraints we often unconsciously take as a given when forming opinions of others. 

At sessions, the jury often finds itself somewhat secluded from the rest of the participants – partly to guarantee neutrality in selection, but partly also because the jury’s working times do not always align with the rest of the participants. At Amsterdam 2021, my top priority is to make sure the jury team becomes an integral part of the Officials’ team and that the threshold to interact with us is low for all participants. Whether you are an official or a delegate, the jury is here for you, so please do not hesitate to approach us with any EYP-related question, be it about the selection criteria, our work or how to continue in EYP! 

See you all soon in Amsterdam!

Amanda

Head of Jury of Amsterdam 2021

Word of Welcome from the Head-Organisers

Dear participants,

On behalf of the organising team, it is our great pleasure to officially welcome you to the Regional Selection Conference of Amsterdam 2021. We are beyond excited to be able to organise this session we have been working on for you. Within a few weeks, we will be able to welcome you to one of the most wonderful cities of The Netherlands, Amsterdam.

This session will be a safe space for all and we want you to feel as comfortable as possible in sharing your opinions and connecting with others. We highly value sustainability and innovation and want to reflect this in our session as well, in many different ways, like fostering local cooperation. You will also be able to see this in the topics you will discuss.

Please make sure to read this booklet carefully as you will find all the necessary information in regard to the session. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us. We wish you success getting ready for the session and are looking forward to meeting you.

Lots of love,

Arno and Seyla

Head-Organisers of Amsterdam 2021

Word of welcome of the Editor

Dear Participants,

I hereby welcome you to Amsterdam 2021, our safe space for learning and implementing. I know that people usually go through challenges and obstacles where they want to hit the exit button and start over. It should be our common understanding that there is no such thing as starting over. The whole process is about reflecting on the experiences and adapting to new adventures. One simply has to choose their ship and keep going no matter how hard it is to continue.” These were the exact words I wrote for a university application. I still don’t know the outcome of my application but I know the growth I gained over these words. Amsterdam 2021 will be the point where we finally realise our boundaries and challenge them.

From the media output to the team environment, everything will be adjusted to the “No Limits” motto of the media team. Every single day of the session, delegates with MTMs will go through challenges and they will be recording the memories from these challenges as well as learning important lessons from the reflected experiences. Every single participant will be in the center of the media team’s attention which completes its main purpose to create an image that is big enough to push the individual limits. Media projects will be based on the stories of delegates rather than basic session elements. Each person will bring a different colour and we will form a rainbow with our projects. That rainbow is meant to be Amsterdam 2021.

When it comes down to the question of why somebody would be a participant in Amsterdam, the answer is simple. We reflect, adapt and push our limits to discover the new limits. Just like the famous poet says we show our worth by what we seek and we seek big this time.

I want you, dear participants, to be open to making mistakes and most importantly learning from them. There will be no shame in making mistakes as even babies fall before their first steps into this world. 

And who judges a baby falling after their first steps?

All and all , there is no exit button or going back, Amsterdam 2021. Of course, there will be challenges, but n o reforms can be achieved without dedication. Those who are skeptical of the integrity of highly innovative advancements also resist the change and slow down the ship. But help is yet to arrive. 

Amsterdam 2021 is here. Welcome to your zone, our zone.

There are #NoLimits

Yigit Acar (TR)

Editor of Amsterdam 2021

EYP explained

• What is EYP?

The European Youth Parliament is a non-profit organisation that is active all over Europe. They organise events throughout the year, but the most common ones are Regional sessions, national sessions and international sessions. During these sessions, the three main goals are skill development, gaining knowledge and empowering young people. 

• What is a RSC?

A Regional Selection Conference is the first step into EYP. The main objective is to teach you, the delegates, about what EYP is and encourage you to enjoy European politics and debating, and since you have already registered to be a part of this event, you have already taken the first step. The RSC’s will also be a place where you will be judged on whether or not you are going to be selected for the National Conference in Rotterdam later this year,  but don’t worry about that too much.

• What comes after the RSC?

After the Regional selection conference, you might be selected to go to the National Conference in february 2022. But, even if you are not selected, your EYP journey can still continue to thrive. You can participate in upcoming EYP events both in the Netherlands, as well as in other countries in Europe. You can do this as a delegate or you can become an ‘official’, to either be a journalist, an organiser, jury member or even chairperson. During the Regional Conference, you will learn more about what all these roles entail.

Session explained

• Teambuilding

During teambuilding you will get to know your chairperson and your fellow committee members. This is key for good teamwork, a nice work environment and you might end up with lifelong friendships! During all the eyp sessions there are multiple exercises that you do with your committee and with the entire group. This enables you to get to know your fellow delegates and form bonds with them by solving problems together. The group will be divided into eight different committees, each containing between six and eight delegates and one or two chairpersons. The chairpersons will guide and support the committees throughout the session and they will challenge the groups physically and intellectually with puzzles, games and dilemmas. This will make sure that everybody feels comfortable with each other and is able to express their opinion freely. The dress code for part of the session is casual

• Eurovillage

Each school is assigned a different European country. Saturday evening you, the delegates, will provide dinner by bringing food that is typical for this country. Be sure to prepare meals for around eight people and a few additional teachers and officials with the fellow delegates from your school. Keep in mind that you will be providing dinner and that your group has to bring plenty for you and your peers. During Eurovillage you can try the different foods prepared by the other groups. All delegates are asked to wear traditional clothes of that country and to bring attributes to decorate their country tables.

• Committee work

During committee work, you will write a high-quality resolution presenting your group’s vision for solving the key issues of your topic. The resolution contains a collection of statements of what the problem is, solutions to the problems and how you would like to implement these solutions. Each committee revolves around a current European issue. Under the guidance of the chairperson, your committee will brainstorm about the different problems and possible solutions and discuss related matters. This part of the session is where you will need your previously done research the most and it is important to come prepared, in order for you to form a well grounded opinion and convince others by giving arguments. Of course, it is also very important to be open minded and listen to your peers’ opinions. Eventually, your committee should be able to present a resolution that is supported by every delegate. The dress code for this part of the session is casual.

• General assembly

During the session you work towards the general assembly, which takes place on sunday. Here you will debate about the resolutions that the committees have worked on. The time set aside for each topic will be around forty minutes, but the President and the Session Board can choose to prolong this or cut it short. The proposing committee introduces their resolution, defends this and leads the debate. At the end of the debates, a vote will take place to determine if the resolution will be accepted. Note that the vote doesn’t affect the jury selection! The dress code for this part of the session is Business formal. 

To do list

Academic preparation

It is important that you start the session well prepared and that you do research on your topic beforehand. You will need a basic understanding of your topic to be able to keep up with and contribute to the discussions and you will use your research during committee work. Often you will find certain material like EU legislation or facts and figures to be useful in your preparations. If you need help with your research you can always contact your chairperson beforehand. We recommend looking into the other topics as well so that you can participate in all the debates. It is possible to use a printer at the session, but it is advisable to print your research at home. 

Consent forms

Please fill out the right consent form before the 5th of November. See the e-mail we have sent you for more information

Registration form

It is important that you fill in the form before the 5th of November to finish your registration. This form contains questions regarding your contact information, emergency contact information, travel information, medical information and your topic preferences. 

Without this you can’t participate in the event. 

Packing list

Essentials:

• Sleeping mat or air mattress, a pillow, a pillowcase, a sleeping bag etc. Please note that you will be sleeping in a classroom.
• Food and drinks of your allocated country for Eurovillage 
• ID or passport
• Health insurance card 

Clothing:

• Casual clothing for Committee Work (saturday)
• Business formal clothing for General Assembly (sunday)
• Clothing of your country for Eurovillage (saturday)
• Pyjamas

Academics:

• Research material & Academic Preparation Kit for Committee Work – please note that you will not be able to print anything during the session.
• Pen & Paper 
• Optional: laptop & charger

Personal items:

• Any (emergency) medication you may need 
• Toiletries: Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant etc
• Towels and showering products – please note that the available showers are limited since we will be staying in a school)
• Phone & charger
• Lots of excitement and a good mood!

Welfare policy and code of conduct

EYP events are meant to be safe and comfortable for everyone, which is why for the entire duration of the session (evenings included), we will follow a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs and alcohol, since most of the participants will be below the legal drinking age in the Netherlands (18). It is also important to stay within the session’s locations, for your own safety and that of the organisation. This means that you are not allowed to leave school grounds at any point in the session. We will also provide nutritious and healthy food for everyone (allergies and dietary needs included), so there will be no need to bring your own food, apart from the Eurovillage dinner, but it is allowed. We do encourage very specific allergies/intolerances such as gluten or lactose to bring special Eurovillage food. You also won’t need to bring money to buy any snacks, but it is allowed of course.

Furthermore, at any point during the session, the EYP will not tolerate any bullying, sexual intimidation or discrimination. There will be two Welfare Officers (“vertrouwenspersoon” in Dutch) present at the event, so if at any point you feel unsafe, uncomfortable or are just in need of a chat, you can talk to them in a private and confidential manner. 

By signing up to this event, you have agreed to behave accordingly to these policies. The organising team is responsible for the welfare of the session, so they also reserve the right to send anyone home who displays unacceptable behaviour.