Regional coordinators

EYP Austria is proud to announce the new team of Regional Coordinators that are now starting their first projects. This young, motivated group of EYP-ers will strengthen the diverse regions of Austria within EYP through events organised each region.

The Regional Coordinators are largely autonomous in the types of events that they want to organise, be it social, academic or just “fun events.” However, all the Regional Coordinators work together in a team. Through regular conversations, they exchange ideas about new or current projects, talk about EYP in the region, or cooperation between the different regions. Also they function as a contact person for new and interested EYP-ers in the region.

We are looking forward to more EYP events in all of Austria’s regions. Contact your Regional Coordinators now!

6th EYP on Ski

The 6th EYP on Ski (2. to 5. April 2012) gathered twelve Austrian EYP-ers in Schladming for skiing, snowboarding and more fun. Read more

Report on the 69th International Session in Istanbul

Being selected for an international Session of the European Youth Parliament: the dream of every young EYP-er.
For us, Lena Strehmann and Valerie Nitsche, this dream came true in March 2011, after being selected last spring at our National Conference in Vienna.

Together with four other Austrian students from Salzburg and their teacher we started our adventure to Istanbul on the 23rd of March. After having arrived in the beautiful city that connects Europe and Asia we were warmly welcomed, shown our luxurious rooms and directly transferred to the fabulous welcome party by the hard working organisers of the 69th international session of EYP.

The first two days of the session were dedicated to getting to know our fellow committee members and teambuilding. Saturday night, we were all burnt by the sun but happy and eager to prepare our table for Eurovillage and taste the delicious food brought by the other delegates from all different countries.
On Monday, we finally commenced with the highly anticipated committee work. In the evening, the session was officially opened at Bahçeşehir University in the beautiful centre of Istanbul, directly at the impressive strait of the Bosporus. Several Turkish politicians held a speech, many of them giving us an interesting insight into Turkey and Turkish politics and motivating us to further continue to stay active in Europe.
Two strenuous but fun days of committee work followed, which resulted in our well worked out resolutions to the committee topics. During Committee Work, we were offered delicious Turkish snacks, coffee, tea and soft drinks at the several coffee breaks, which energized us again and motivated us to go back to the intense discussions.

Mid of the week, we set out for the town centre of Istanbul, where we would be staying for the rest of the session. On Wednesday night, we enjoyed an amazing theme party on a boat on the Bosporus, from where we could see the sites we would visit again the next day during the city tour.

Following up after our city tour, was the Euroconcert, where we were able to admire the unbelievable talents of our fellow delegates.
The last two days of the session were used for the highly anticipated General Assembly. The two days were full of vivacious discussions, one of the most memorable ones being the one on the current issue of Turkeys EU membership. It was extremely fascinating to see the Turkish delegates’ point of view. Another heated discussion was one about the rights of homosexual couples, including child adoption and marriage. The participants’ opinions turned out to be extremely diverse and emotional concerning this topic, which made the Open Debate extremely vivid. Many of us were given the chance to hold impressive speeches stating our points of view on the different committee topics. All in all, the General Assembly of the 69th international Session in Istanbul, was a very special and unique one. It was concluded with lots of moving speeches many at Closing Ceremony.

(written by Lena Strehmann and Valerie Nitsche)

EYP-ers of the Month April 2012

The EYP-ers of the month are Ronja Seyrl and Teresa Stadler.

These two young ladies are the head-organisers of the 13. Austrian National Conference (Vienna 2012). Supported by an enthusiastic team of organisers, they are making enormous efforts to make the session as excellent as possible, and so far the project seems to be setting new standards for EYP Austria.

March Jour Fixe

As spring came upon us, it was especially refreshing to see many new faces at the Jour Fixe this time.
There were some exciting new things to be reviewed, such as the preparation meeting of the delegates representing Austria at the 69. International Session in Istanbul, the upcoming Alumni Training in summer, and the first ever Jour Fixe in Graz. Furthermore, EYP Austria is now putting more effort into the legal aspects of our organisation, a stronger regional focus as well as its relation to other National Committees by forming groups of people dedicated to work in and improve said fields.

The second part of the Jour Fixe split the participants into three working groups. We can certainly look forward to the results and hope to be seeing even more new faces in the future.

Chairs Training

Over the weekend of 17. to 18. March, EYP Austria hosted its third chairs training in six months. The trainers this time were Masoumeh Moridian and Ulla Thamm. The 19 participants of the training came from Austria, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Some parts of the training took place outside, thanks to the sunny weather in Vienna. The training had a heavy practical focus and gave everyone a chance to put their skills into practice, as well as to exchange precious knowledge about chairing.

We are looking forward to see the trainees chairing at EYP-sessions all over Europe.

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Anticipating Vienna 2012

After many Austrian EYP-ers enjoyed the EYP Days in Vienna, Graz, and Villach, EYP Austria is looking forward to Vienna 2012, the 13th National Conference. The call for schools and delegates is open until 18. February, and so is the call for members of the press team. A promising international chairs team has been selected and the final versions of the topics are being proofread and confirmed and will be published in a few days.

Meanwhile, the organisers are very busy with preparations for the session. We are also working hard on realising a session that is as green as possible. Transportation will play a big role before, during and after the session, and also our venues were chosen with the environment in mind.
Finally, we are especially happy to announce that the session is being supported by the Youth in Action program me.