Participating in the European Youth Parliament may be the ideal solution for any teacher that wishes to work with the topic of ‘Europe’ in their classes. During participation, your students will debate about global and European topics and meet other young students from all over Europe, focusing on competencies rather than competition.

Educational Value

Through participation in the EYP, young people gain valuable skills, knowledge and confidence and are empowered to have an impact in society. As an organisation for civic education, the EYP seeks to equip its members with transversal skills that formal education often does not provide. To guarantee a high level of educational value, the EYP seeks to examine its work and educational methodology on a regular basis.

Their Journey

The Regional Selection Conference

Your students will start at one of our Regional Selection Conferences which are hosted in the autumn/winter. At these conferences, a Jury Team is present that will observe your students’ performance and they will apply our Jury Criteria. The Jury Team aims to provide all participants with feedback and will select several school delegations to continue to our National Selection Conference. The Jury Team does not look for the best debaters, but aims to select the participants that may benefit the most from participating further in the EYP.

However – if participants do not get selected to the National Selection Conference, they are still very welcome in the EYP. Every participant will automatically become an Alumni of EYP NL, which means they are welcome to attend activities in The Netherlands or go to conferences abroad. Next to that, participants may be invited to go to smaller conferences abroad as well.

The National Conference

Some schools will be selected to attend the National Conference, which usually takes place between January and March after the Regional Selection Conferences. At this conference, A Jury Team is again present in order to select participants to continue to larger international events, such as the International Sessions. This event will take place in a larger city and will be a bit longer.

International events

Participants at either the Regional Selection Conference or National Selection Conference may be invited to attend events in another country and meet other Europeans to exchange ideas and cultures. Travelling to these events may sometimes be reimbursed, but if this is not the case and one of your students may need financial support to go abroad, they can apply to our Mobility Fund.

Alumni

After participation in one event of EYP NL, all participants are considered alumni, which means they are free to join our events in The Netherlands or apply to attend events abroad. Participants usually stay active until the age of 25, assuming a lot of positions in The Netherlands as well as abroad. There is no subscription fee or membership free required in The Netherlands.

Competencies rather than Competition

The EYP is focused on competency development, rather than being another debating competition. We encourage this in several ways. During the Committee Work stage, students debate solutions on their topic in a small group, promoting students’ teamwork and conflict management skills. Students represent their own opinion rather than having to represent an assigned country, making for a more authentic experience where they learn to interact with others’ opinions. In addition, the Jury’s selection of students for the next events is announced shortly after the event instead of during it, to take the attention away from the selection in the last moments of the event. It is small changes like these that make the atmosphere.

After participating, alumni are free to apply to conferences abroad, or even volunteer to run events behind the scenes; organising the events themselves, documenting them or academically leading them. Here, they get countless opportunities to develop new or existing previously mentioned competencies further. All events contain at least one day of training for these volunteers in topics ranging from group dynamics and energy management to time management and fundraising. In addition, we organise a separate weekend of training for our alumni yearly.

Teacher Involvement

In communication with our Secretary, teachers can be as involved as they like. They are the main point of contact for registration and the participation fee. Contact about organisational manners such as consent forms can be established with students directly. Our project managers take care of all organisational matters of the event itself, and volunteers organise workshops to introduce students to our concept and prepare students from schools who have signed up to participate. More information on these workshops can be found here. We also offer the opportunity to receive a workshop by Understanding Europe on the institutions of the EU, more information can be found here.
Aside from these workshops, participants are expected to prepare for the conferences by reading the Academic Preparation Kit, made specifically for each event. Teachers often choose to organise preparation meetings where students go over this Kit in a group setting. However, past participating students are often eagerly motivated to take on a coordinating role at their own schools to continue the participation in EYP for years to come. These students often also coordinate the forming of new teams.

During the event, you have the option to attend a teacher’s meeting to have a chat with other teachers and see how their students are doing. This is also an ideal time to learn more about the EYP and talk with people involved in the organisation.