Growing, giving, receiving – 67. International Session in the Rhône-Alpes region, France

The International Sessions (IS) are the flagship events of the European Youth Parliament and this year’s summer session in the Rhône-Alpes region in France was definitely no exception. Under the motto ‘Growing, giving, receiving’, more than 200 young people with 34 different nationalities came together for the 67th IS from the 15th to 24th July.

Growing. We can proudly say that Austria was represented vastly at the session: 11 Austrian delegates participated in the session, as well as two Austrian chairpersons. A lot was expected from delegates and officials at the International Session, especially a high academic level, as well as strong active involvement during the session, in order to ensure a high quality of work. Of course, there was also a lot to be learnt as well (, which is an immensely interesting and pleasant experience in EYP).

Giving. Like all EYP-sessions, the 67th IS provided an absolutely unique experience. The session happened in three different locations:

  1. The teambuilding took place in Villard de Lans, a lovely village in the alps. The location felt a lot like Austria, obviously. Main venue for the teambuilding was a newly-built and very modern boarding school.
  2. For committee work, participants were transferred to Grenoble, also known as ‘the capital city of the alps’. The main venues were situated in the outer, more industrial, parts of the city, but the evening programme provided a glimpse at the inner part of Grenoble. The participants were taken to one of the venues with a cable car; again, quite familiar to Austrians.
  3. The final and most exciting part of the session took the participants to Lyon, the second biggest city in France. The General Assembly took place in the regional council of the Rhône-Alpes region, an extremely modern and impressive building.

The relatively high diversity of locations at the session gave delegates a chance to actually see the surroundings of the session, which is very unusual.

Receiving. The session set itself apart from others before in terms of academic quality. With very demanding topics, the work ethic at the session was kept high. Especially the General Assembly was outstanding, as a maximum level of quality of the discussions was upheld continuously from the beginning to the very end. The resolutions speak for themselves; the delegates of the session have brilliantly mastered to debate interesting European topics, including prisoners’ rights, taxation, the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, European Territorial Cooperation, population ageing and the arts sector.

↓ Download the Resolution Booklet here.