November 29, 2007

Elizabethtown College Represents Hungary at This Year’s EU Simulation
 

This semester Elizabethtown College was again participating in the European Union Simulation of the Mid-Atlantic European Union Consortium of fifteen colleges and universities that carry out a yearly EU simulation in Washington, D.C., with each college representing an EU member state. Over the last twelve years, they had had collaboration from the European Commission Delegation in Washington and the embassies of EU members. Teams from the colleges, each representing an EU country, meet for three days to debate and decide on a resolution about a key policy question affecting the European Union. In 2007 Hungary was represented by Elizabethtown College.

The topic for debate this year was EU Climate Change Policy: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Energy and Transport. The Elizabethtown delegation of six students and their professor sought to understand and represent the Hungarian positions on some of the key issue areas: climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and the effect of EU climate change policy on the energy and transportation sectors in Hungary. Mr. Balázs Erdei, Science and Technology Counselor from the Embassy of Hungary, helped the group of students better understand the Hungarian positions on these issues.
 

Laurenn O'Donnell from Elizabethtown speaking as the Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány

Members of the class on the European Union at this College each represented, as their persona, a member of the Hungarian Cabinet (PM, Transport, and Environment) of and the European Parliament (Industry, Research and Energy and Climate Change Committees). The Simulation lasted two full days, November 16 and 17, 2007, following Thursday's Embassy briefings, presentations, interviews, and meetings. The approximately 200 student participants were playing EU institutional and national roles, actually walking through the sequence of events taken by the main EU institutions in making binding decisions for the Union.
 

Abbie Trone (middle) listening to arguments from another "Minister" on the opposite end of the table 

One feature of the simulation that was most meaningful to students was a visit to the Embassy of the country they were representing, for a briefing on the topic in which they are to represent that particular country. According to their professor, Ms. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca, the Elizabethtown group's visit to the Embassy of Hungary was extremely helpful: "Our participation in the debate on climate change, representing Hungary, was much better informed and more authentic as a result of your kind and helpful briefing after our prior studies on the issue."

We are delighted and most proud to inform you that one of Elizabethtown’s students, William Hamilton (representing Mr. András Gyürk, Hungarian Member of the EU Parliament) was elected as the President of the European Parliament. Abbie Trone (representing Mr. Gábor Fodor) received the Best Minister of Environment Award at the Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation Program.
 

The team of Elizabethtown students with Hungarian Embassy science counselor Balázs Erdei