Laura Muscat, Jean Paul Gatt, Vivienne Bajada and Tobias Roth

Last January, four students from the University of Malta participated for the second time in a European Union Council Simulation organised by the State University of New York (SUNY) at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Called SUNY Model EU, the simulation is an annual event held one year in the US and one year in Europe. This year the simulation was celebrating its 25th year.

This year it took the students to the beautiful historic city of Exeter amid the enchanting English countryside of Devon. Exeter has a 2000-year history where great writers such as Charles Dickens and J. K. Rowling got their inspiration for their novels. In fact J. K. Rowling studied at the University of Exeter, which is where she claims to have gotten her inspiration for the moving staircase as well as Gandy Street, a quaint narrow alley lined with kitsch shops where it is rumoured that she got her inspiration for Diagon Alley.

SUNY MEU is a transnational collegiate which aims to provide a framework for a simulation of a European Council meeting to better educate students about the European Union while giving them an opportunity to interact with students from EU 27 member states. Over 150 students from 17 different universities from the US and Europe participated, among them The University of Izmir (Turkey), Nottingham Trent University (UK), Buffalo State (US) and the University of Lille (France).

This year the delegation from the UOM included Laura Muscat, Jean Paul Gatt, Vivienne Bajada and Tobias Roth from the Institute for European Studies who represented Portugal whose alter egos were head of government, Permanent representative at the EU (COREPER, Ecofin Minister and Foreign Minister) respectively.

The simulation was held at the beautiful campus of the University of Exeter between 5 and 7 January. The campus is impressive, a mix between walking into a Jane Austen novel with romantic buildings scattered through the green scenery of the English countryside, coupled with the juxtaposition of the modern buildings, which were recently built.

All the students had different agendas, the heads of governments had the ambitious and strenuous task for solving the EU crisis, bailouts and the Euro pact; the Foreign ministers discussed Hamas and the possibility of a EU Taskforce, where the latter proved to be a failure and did not pass; the Ecofin ministers discussed the Tobin Tax and COREPER discussed the formulation of a new drug action plan. The two-hour sessions encouraged heated debates and each country had to vote unanimously on each agenda item. This was followed by a plenary session (press conference) with updates on the respective meetings, where journalists had the opportunity to ask questions and during breaks lobbying was at full force. After two days the Council of Ministers agreed on the conclusions, among them the enforcement of the fiscal compact by not later than 2018, a new drug action plan, the organisation of a conference following the 2012 Palestinian parliamentary elections, aimed at discussing the possibility of future cooperation with the nation of Palestine and lastly agreed on a proposal to the immediate creation of Eurobonds for all sovereign debt in the Eurozone at a level to be decided unanimously by the Euro Group. The simulation was also accompanied by social events on campus and around the city of Exeter organised by the University of Exeter, where participants got to know each other better.

Participation in SUNY MEU is a vital experience serving as a useful learning experience in a number of ways; it was a good exercise in public speaking and hands on experience on how an EU Council simulation works. The students were required to use the proper formal language used in European Council meetings, and the format of the meetings was made to resemble the actual Council meetings, therefore allowing the participants to fully experience the challenge of being a political figure who must lobby and use the art of diplomacy to protect their interests.

We would like to thank Elijah Waterman from the US Embassy for part funding our stay in Exeter and Prof. Roderick Pace and Dr Mark Harwood from the Institute for European Studies at the University of Malta.