EYP

EYP stands for European Youth Parliament and it is an MUN-like organization but aimed mostly for teenagers. It is a non-profit organization which only encourages European youth to actively engage with citizenship and cultural understanding. It was first established in France in 1987 and growing ever since. As an Eurasian country, Turkey also hosts EYP sessions in Istanbul for years now.

Unlike MUN there is no country represented, there are only problems waiting to be solved. Generally it takes 3 or 4 days and you only separate with your committee members when you go to sleep. What is attractive is that you do not look only for solutions to world problems but you also make new friends. There are numerous EYP games which aim to bring people closer. That is the reason half of the first day generally is reserved only for these ice-brakers. As a new comer knowing no one, you might not understand the reason behind these games or it may sound silly to you but at the end of the day, people always realize how important is to play these games. As a whole, these games purposes to set a trust bond between delegates let everyone feel comfortable, respect each other and learn to wait for our turns to speak. Once all these games are played and it’s time to discuss everyone feels like they know each other for a long time so nobody feels shy and everyone is able to bring forward their point of view.

There are different committees just like in MUN and you can pick the one you are interested in. The organization targets to cover all issues in European countries therefore, there are committees focuses on environment, constitution, human rights, women rights, development, economy, employment, industry and many more. The EYP sessions divides into two, International Sessions and National Sessions. The conferences in Istanbul for example are national. Another thing that makes EYP so attractive is that when you attend to a National Session the jury of the board observes all the delegates. Once everyone is observed there will be some selected in order to attend to an International session. So there is brainstorming, learning, teaching and plus competing. International sessions are a whole other experience because there you gather with the selected delegates from all over Europe. I, myself, attended to three National Conferences. In the third I was honoured to be selected for an International session in Germany. These conferences will remain to be best memories. Once you start to be an EYPier, there is no end to this amazing journey. I strongly advise people who are interested to join. I loved it so much I organized two EYP-like sessions in my high school in order to show students what its like. I promise that you will not regretted at all 