Playing the roles of prime ministers and presidents, ambassadors and commissioners, and ministers and diplomats, they spend three days haggling over policy, resolving disputes, building compromises and charting the course of European unity.
This year, the Midwest Model European Union will be hosted by IU under the Institute for European Studies. This is the second year IU has hosted the three-day conference event.
About 15 schools will be participating in the conference this year with about 180 students and 200 participants in total. The students will simulate meetings of the three major ?institutions of the European Union.
These institutions include the European Council, the European Commission, and the Council of Ministers.
“The conference is very closely related to how the actual European Union works,” said Megan Immerzeel, administrative secretary for the Institute for European Studies. “It gives students a clear understanding through this simulation.”
The actual Model European Union takes place every year in Strasbourg, France, at the Louise Weiss Building, the official seat of the European ?Parliament.
During the conference, students will be broken up into seven groups and separated into smaller rooms. Each group will run a meeting among the participants for the duration of the three days.
Prior to the conference, students are required to do preparation work and submit policy proposals. These proposals are supposed to mirror laws the European Union might actually want to enact.
The policy proposals are divided into specific themes that were predetermined by the Model European Union, using topics commonly found in the actual union. These topics include foreign affairs, economics, environmental issues, and justice and home affairs.
During the conference, the pre-written policy proposals are discussed in the group meetings throughout the three days. The purposes of the meetings are to foster discussion, and in the end, the participants decide as a whole what policies will pass and what policies will not pass.
A keynote speaker will also contribute to the three days. Mary Murphy from the University of Cork in Ireland will be going in-depth, ?speaking about the policy of the ?European Union.
Murphy specializes in the study of the European Union and Northern Ireland politics. She recently published a monograph in April 2014 titled “Northern Ireland and the European Union: The Dynamics of a Changing Relationship” and co-edited a special issue of Administration with John O’Brennan titled “Reflections of Forty Years of Irish Membership of the EU.”
The majority of the students participating in the conference are fulfilling a requirement in their European studies classes. IU offers a European studies class that makes the conference a ?requirement.
A total of 42 students will be representing IU at the conference. These students are from the Bloomington campus, IU South Bend and IU-Purdue University ?Indianapolis.
“This is mostly to show the students the decision-making processes of the European Union,” Immerzeel said. “It promotes academic relations amongst all of the different universities.”
The event will take place starting today in the Tree Suites in the Indiana Memorial Union.
