European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 MEP VIENNA 2014 European Daily Delegate
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European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 MEP VIENNA 2014 European Daily Delegate! We a t h e r f o re c a s t Sunny Max: 21°C !Min: 7°C ! ! Programme for Saturday 5/4/2014 Un#l 02:30 h European Ball For Peace !Palais Schönburg Lobbying Departure of delegaons ! Heated discussions, delegates poinng fingers, pens scribbling, ! and a loud volume were to find at the dining hall in the ! Theresianum today. Surprisingly, all of it was calmly watched by commiee presidents, who, for once during the whole session of MEP Vienna, didn’t call their delegates to order. You ! can guess what was going on: lobbying. The cafeteria area was full of delegates, sing around tables in their commiees, eagerly trying to overcome the noise around them. Weak points were addressed and improved. Answers to possible quesons were planned and discussed. Weak points of other resoluons were circled and a>acked. Amendments were wrien and signed. At around 17:00 the adrenaline and enthusiasm of the delegates started to diminish and people were geng confident of their achievements of the last few days. Aer a good meal, delegates started seling down, though sll excitedly looking forward to the upcoming GA. !1 European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 ! Discussion Panel ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Aer a day packed with lobbying, collecng signatures and making deals the delegates were once again invited into the naonal library, where a Panel Discussion was taking place. Due to difficules in finding the right door the programme started slightly delayed with a musical piece performed by students of the Theresianische Akademie. The delegates were welcomed by the the substute of the library’s director, Dr. Johanna Rachinger, who expressed her awe of hosng such a huge number of young people in her library. Furthermore she spoke a few words regarding the WW I exhibion consisng of posters, leaflets, Books and even children's drawings, which have been collected since the outbreak of the war in 1914. With reminding the audience of the immense importance of keeping in mind past events so that one could learn from them, she cleared the panel for a video message of the Austrian president Dr. Heinz Fischer, who was delighted about welcoming the parcipants to the “true European” city. Besides emphasizing that in his opinion Vienna is a great choice for seng up such an internaonal event partly due to a high number of internaonal facilies’ headquarters located in the Capital, the rich, diverse culture and most importantly the intense polical life he also addressed his hopes and expectaons to the delegates. They were encouraged to discern value of fair debate, to listen to one another, find !soluons together and in general experience a successful week worth remembering. The main aracon, the panel discussion concerning “The EU-a global player of peace?”, organized on the occasion of the 100 annual of the outbreak of WW II, was chaired by the Managing director of the European Forum Alpbach, Philippe Narval, who in turn asked the orators on their opinion regarding topics such as whether peace is maintaining a major significance in the EU programme. In addion, viewpoints on past and ongoing wars were compared and memories regarding past horrors were shared with the audience. The delegates made use of the possibility to ask quesons, voice their thoughts and express their fears to such an extent that the me limit was reached before the orators got the chance to sasfy every of them. Therefore, even though the Panel Discussion had already ended with a breathtaking performance of Mozart’s “Die kleine Nachtmusik”, once again played by the orchestra of the Theresianische Akademie, the speakers sacrificed a lile bit more of their precious me to offer interested delegates the possibility of a debate. !2 European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 The Orators HE Ambassador Dr. Chrisan Strohal •Director of the Office for Democra1c Instuons and ! Human Rights of the OSCE Europe ! ! Richard Kühel ! • Head of the Representaon of the European Commission in ! Austria ! • received the “Josef Krainer Zukunspreis” in 2011 ! ! HE Vuk Jeremic ! • former Foreign Minister of Serbia ! • former President of the United Naons General Assembly ! ! HE Ambassador Mark Bailey ! •Ambassador to Canada ! ! Gregory Whye ! • Business Development Director of EuropeAid Affairs, Human ! Dynamics Brussels ! Frederic Morton ! ! •Author of “Thunder at Twilight 1913/14 •fled from the Nazis in 1939 ! ! Prince Max of Hohenberg ! •Strategic Communicaons Consultant ! !3 European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 General Assembly Aer four days of analyzing and tackling their various issues, of wring ICs and wavering over OCs and finally pung all their effort into creang an incontroverble resoluon the commiees were now faced with the task of presenng and, if necessary, defending their work with everything they had. Over two days they would be pushed to their limits in order to defend their resoluons and only the best ones would pass the General Assembly. Mr. Dossi, the director of the Parliament, welcomed the delegates on behalf of Barbara Prammer, the President of the Naonal Council of the Austrian Parliament, to the Parliament. In his speech he took reference to the upcoming elecons of the European Parliament, especially stressing the fact that they would set the condions for the European Integraon progress. The “Our Europe- your choice” campaign is Austria’s contribuon to raising awareness of the general public and, in parcular, the youth. It is the teenagers of today, who will make the difference in the future. Vice-President Alexander Bren delivered the next speech, reminding the delegates to live up to their own expectaons,to be construcve in trying to contribute posively to a resoluon rather than tearing it apart for the sole reason of wanng to be compeve. More than anything else he requested the parcipants to stay on topic and to express relevant ma>ers only. Aer voicing his gratude to Mr. Dossi and Barbara Prammer for hosng the MEP in the Parliament the General Assembly was officially declared opened. !4 European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 ! Committee on Industry, Research and Energy ! First up and well prepared was the commiee on Industry, Research and Energy. Aer the Latvian delegate fluently read out the resoluon, Ireland delivered a professional opening speech, addressing the main points and promong the resoluon adequately. The commiee also did an amazing job answering the factual quesons and had a detailed answer prepared to every single topic. The amendment against the commiee was a good a>empt, but the delegate proposing it came barely prepared and had to ask for his original document. Also factual quesons concerning the amendment were vaguely answered and he ended up completely agreeing with the commiee and calling himself a “strong defender” of the OC’s idea, wanng to improve the resoluon through a “stronger formulaon”. The amendment passed with great approval of the commiee and the audience (119 votes in favor, 22 against). The factual queson debate was also barely a problem for the commiee, as there were always a lot of plaque cards in the air and delegates had well-prepared answers. Fortunately for the commiee, the speech against the resoluon was very brief and not well stated. Denmark held a very convincing closing speech, disproving every single argument and finishing with a reminder of the president in mid-sentence, that turned out to be her last one as well. All in all the commiee did a good job in defending their strong resoluon and were happy to see it !pass. ! !Sophie Pramann, Student Media Office ! ! The Committee on Foreign Affairs The commiee on Foreign Affairs was the second to present their resoluon in the General Assembly. Aer two textual changes were made, the delegate from Portugal read out the operaonal clauses the commiee had been working on for the past three days. As the factual quesons followed, the delegates seemed to build up confidence that the inial message of the resoluon would become clearer. Aer a strong opening speech the debate began, and slowly the GA began to find faults in the resoluon. The main obstacle arose in the speech against the resoluon, when a delegate from the Netherlands held a very convincing speech. Although the Swedish delegate from the commiee succeeded in holding a strong speech in favour of the resoluon, it wasn't enough, !and the resoluon on Foreign Affairs unfortunately didn't pass. !Rebecca Gösker, Student Media Officer !5 European Daily Delegate MEP Vienna 2014 April 4, 2014 ! ! Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (I) ! All delegates were well prepared in order to accurately answer each queson. Even some a>enve but rather quite delegates were able to parcipate, which was quite helpful especially in the open discussion where the delegates were immensely occupied with providing proper answers. A amendment proposed by an Italian delegate did not pass with merely 30 people in favor. Aer an Estonian delegate was chosen to deliver the speech against the resoluon the delegate of United Kingdom gave the closing speech, where he eventually pointed out that the EU spends more !money on cows than on the youth. In the end the hard work and the long discussions paid off and the resoluon passed,despite the disapproval of the commiee presidents, with 71 delegates in favor, 54 against and around 30 !abstenons. !Max Nusser, Student Media Officer ! ! ! ! ! Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (I) ! The commiee on Civil Liberes (l) presented themselves really well. There has been one textual change approved. Aer the delegate from the UK had read out the resoluon, the Austrian delegate gave a fantasc opening speech.