Getting a taste of Euro Crisis
Posted: Friday, 27th January 2012
POLITICS students walked in the shoes of Merkel and Sarkozy for a weekend at the UK’s first mock undergraduate EU summit.
MMU has one of the most active delegations at the 25th SUNYMEU negotiations held at the University of Exeter.
Students Adam Min and Dayo Harland were chosen to represent the Czech Republic at the annual model EU which attracts young scholars of diplomacy and politics from across the EU and North America.
Lecturer Kamil Zwolski, who supervised their research and negotiations, said: “This was a fantastic piece of real world experience for them. We had controversies, national sentiment and fierce debates – the teams had really done their homework.
Debt crisis
“The tasks were especially difficult in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis, but our guys did a really good job.
“I thought they did fantastically well researching and representing the interest of the Czechs and although we were one of the smaller nations around the table, our delegation was recognised as one of the most active ones.”
Adam, a third year on the combined honours Economics and Politics, said: “This was is a great opportunity not only to learn more about how different European Union institutions work, but also to enhance leadership skills, learn how to compromise and deal with the many difficult challenges in and out of the political arena.”
Dayo said: “Being part of the ‘model’ EU was an amazing experience. I got a real perspective on how things might be done in the EU and made some fantastic connections and got to share ideas with people of diverse backgrounds and world view.”
MMU’s annual participation in the State University of New York Model European Union (SUNYMEU) was established by ex-departmental colleague Professor Neil Nugent and is held alternately in Europe and America.