Trip To Strasbourg

Details

Published: Monday, 25 February 2013

On Wednesday 30th of January, a group of Transition Year students participated in Euroscola, which took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Maighread, Jodi, Caoimhe, Siún, Sarah, Tom, Darren, Megan were accompanied on the trip by their European Studies teacher, Ms Jean Walsh.

We landed in Frankfurt airport and travelled by coach, along with forty eight other students from schools across the island, to our destination, Strasbourg. On arrival at the parliament building on Thursday, we were firstly treated to breakfast with the other students representing each of the member states, and were divided into working groups. We then took our seats in the Parliament Chamber, known as the Hemicycle, and had an interesting introduction to the EU institutions and how they function. Following this, a student from each school introduced their own individual school and area. This could not be done in our vernacular language, so Caoimhe did us proud by addressing the parliament in French. This was followed by an introduction to the electronic voting system used by the MEPs and a chance to have a trial run before the serious voting which would take place later.

After this session all the students returned to the restaurant for lunch and a Eurogame. From then it was into our working groups to discuss various issues. We participated in two groups which discussed "2013-European Year of Citizens" and "Europe's Future". A committee chairperson was voted and at 4pm we resumed our seats in the Hemicycle for a lively debate on the various issues, followed by voting on acceptance or rejection of the proposals. (Well done to Siún, who stood up in the huge chamber to pose a question the EU Agriculture Policies.) Our day at the European Parliament ended at 6pm and we returned to our hotel for dinner, followed by fun and games organised by Dolores.

Next morning saw us taking a two hour walking tour through the historic centre of Strasbourg. This was followed by three hours free time to shop and see more of the city before we boarded the bus which took us back to Frankfurt airport for the trip home.

This trip was a wonderful experience for all concerned and our thanks must go to Dolores, Siobhan and all of the European Studies group who accompanied us. We must also thank the EU Education Committee which is so generous in funding educational trips like this for all European students. It's a trip we will remember forever.