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unitedthe official magazine of the 3rd NSC of EYP Slovakia

ISSUE II - 14. Dec 2012

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Dear Delegates,

As the famous industrialist Henry Ford once said,

«Coming together is a beginning.Keeping together is progress.Working together is success.»

During teambuilding, you not only got to know each other, you may have already begun to be and work as a team. You have been challenged by your chairs and by the task to collaborate with strangers. But by not giving up, the situation changed: The members of your committee became familiar to you, some of them even friends.

Today, you will have to work in this team. And believe me: This will tie you up even closer. even though it might be exhausting sometimes. At the end of this process, there will be more than only one success: Not only will a white paper have turned into a resolution - you will have changed, too.

In this issue, you can observe a part of this development. Enjoy reading it!

Anna

editorial.

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content.5| The breaking point ................................................ 4

| Speechless! ............................................................. 5

| Interview with the Head Organisers .............. 6/7

| Teambuilding CULT .............................................. 8

| Teambuilding CRIM .............................................. 9

| Seems legit! ....................................................... 10/11

| Teambuilding AFCO ............................................ 12

| Teambuilding IMCO ............................................. 13

| Can we skype soon? ........................................... 14

H2O6/7

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8, 9, 12, 13

10/11

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The European Union needs to take big measures to find its way to the future, claims Vaclav Huk.

At the beginning, the aim was peace. Peace which was sup-posed to ensure the fluency of business and economical growth of our continent. They called it «The European coal and steel community». That was five years after the end of the biggest war the world had ever seen. The purpose was simple: States which have trade con-nections do not benefit from warfare between each other. And that purpose was success-ful.But what happened to this no-ble idea nowadays? Can we still secure the peace within such a big and unique integration pro-ject? And did the ultimate goals – such as peace, stability and the raise of the quality of citi-zen’s life – prevail?We care too much about how we are being judged by outsid-ers. We worry too much about sometimes inefficient and very general laws. And we forget the goals the EU set up more than 60 years ago: Commonalty, Profit, Contentment and Inte-

gration Enthusiasm. We should remember that this is why the Union was founded – nothing else.The EU has to change. Change its approach to freedom, so-cially responsible politics and to widespread satisfaction. We haven’t done much concerning these purposes during the past four years. Or maybe we tried, but did not suc-ceed. Social situ-ation in Greece, Spain, Portugal – and we can just wonder which state will join them in the near future – is unsustainable. However, we should not blame ourselves and waste time with never-ending discussions starting with: How could such thing happen to our perfect system? We would bet-ter put all our efforts in finding solutions! Reformation of mon-etary or political system could be a measure how to start with.

More integration? One common currency? Reduction of bureau-cracy systems? Exclusion of dishonest states? Accession of another states? These could be solutions. But we have to start talking about them! Processes like this take time. And every big project has its successes and failures. But we need to

start doing something! Something which will e n d u r e . Something which our

grandchildren will look up to. Something which will be called «the breaking point»!Undoubtedly, this will not be easy. There are many cultural, economic and language differ-ences to bridge. Still - would it not be a shame if we could not sort this out? This great idea should not fail through childlike mistakes. It is in our hands now. We are the public – and change has to arise from our conscious-ness!

«Every big project has its successes and fail-ures. But we need to start doing something!»

The breaking point

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What did you think ...

about the food?There are things in this world that leave you speechless. Tell us about them!

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job, I work in Sales Support. I enjoy listening to the UK accents and trying to understand Scottish people.

2) If your house was on fire and you could only save one posses-sion what would it be?

David: Laptop; it has everything.

Kate: I’d just run! I’m not tied to material goods, they are replace-able.

3) What was your first EYP Ses-sion like?

David: It was the very first Slo-vakian NSC and was great. My favourite part was the General Assembly. It was a completely new experience and I’ve kept in contact with a few people I met there.

Kate: It was the 2nd NSC of EYP Slovakia, only last year. It was tir-ing but amazing. There were very sociable Delegates who were also cooperative. I have kept in touch with a few from last year; I now

1) Outside of EYP, what do you do at the moment?

David: I am in my first year of studying Applied Economics in Bratislava at Comenius Univer-sity. It’s hard work because of the maths but I like it. I have to

take an exam today, so am going back to Bra-tislava during the day

and will be back later. It is a maths

exam too!

Kate: I am in my first year of studying Design of Media at

the Pan-European University. I like it, and hope it gets better and

better. I also have a

part-time job at Amazon. It’s

a really good

know Lenka and Linda, and David is a good friend.

4) Who is the most attractive Official at this Session?

David: I don’t know all of them as I was away for parts of yesterday. But Kate, the Polish Journo is the most entertaining.

Kate: Can we skip this question? Do you want me to say you? I’d say Tobias because his ideas are just so attractive you can’t resist him.

5) How long has this Session been in the making?

David: Six months. That is when I first found out about being a HO and where the Session would be held. Our first serious meet-ing was in August, and the major things were done months ago.

Kate: The last meeting was im-portant and was only two weeks ago! It’s been planned for months though.

H2OWhilst the President is the extrinsic symbol of a Session, the Head Organiser (HO) hurriedly goes about his work out of sight. Luke Thomas met not one but two of those special people - Katarina and David.

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6) What is the best thing about being an HO?

David: As a whole it is a great experience. Having to deal with responsibility and learn new things will definitely help in the future.

Kate: I like to be in charge. It’s a great feeling when things are working well. And it sounds good; ‘Head Organiser’.

7) What’s the worst thing about being an HO?

David: Lack of sleep. I had three hours last night, and three hours the night before. And I can’t im-agine getting much more as we still have a lot to do.

Kate: Responsibility and being busy. 8) Have you ever attended an International Session (IS)? If so, how was it?

David: Yes, I was a Delegate at Athens in 2011. It was fun. I met a lot of different people and it led to the worst PED (post EYP de-pression) I have ever had. It was completely new to me, as I was part of the first ever Slovakian Delegation to attend an IS. The Session had a gossip magazine as well as the Session newspa-per, but everyone just read the gossip!

Kate: No, not yet.

9) What would your advice be for this Session’s Delegates?

David: Just enjoy it and learn. That goes for all EYP Sessions: enjoy and learn. Try to have the best time possible.

Kate: Obey rules. Think. Have fun.

10) Say a random word?

David: Car. What was that for?!

Kate: Amazing.

11) How does this Slovakian NSC differ from other Ses-sions?

David: Everybody says we have a great venue, even in Berlin they said that. At the BNC meeting in Spring 2012 we had to introduce EYP Slovakia to everybody, and this included photographs of Papiernička, which everybody liked. Even though it is a NSC, there has been bigger inter-est from international Delegate applicants than national, maybe because of the venue.

Kate: I don’t know. I’ve only been to Slovakian Sessions. We have ninja unicorns, rainbows, a spa, the best Orgas and great CJOs.

12) How is the Ses-sion going so far?

David: It’s go-ing well. I’m satisfied with almost eve-rything. The Officials ar-rivals were a bit of a

problem, but there haven’t been major problems.

Kate: Genuinely marvellous.

13) Why do you take part in EYP?

David: Because of the people I’m working with. I like it.

Kate: I wanted to experience something new, improve my English and meet new people.

14) Finally, what has been your greatest EYP experience?

David: Getting lost in Athens. We nearly missed the Euroconcert! We were walking around the city looking for a restaurant, and then tried to take a shortcut to get home. It wasn’t a shortcut! Peo-ple were looking at us strangely for arriving late. It all worked out in the end though.

Kate: Last year one of my CJOs said I was a star.

It sounded re-ally good to

me.

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Welcome to the Culture Club!

CULT: a Committee of enthusiasm, initiative and a peculiarly creative approach to teambuilding. Culture are Chaired by both Hrvoje and Naomi, so times in the CULT head-quarters have never been boring! In this report we will take a look at their time so far.

Subsequent to brief introductions, the Com-mittee got stuck into a lively game of ‘Pass the Orange’. Some of the techniques the Del-egates adopted to pass the particular items could be described as strange; however their originality was certainly admirable. Both Martin and Daniel took very well to the challenge and impressed us all with their skills. Later on, CULT was faced with the unenviable prospect of untan-gling themselves from the dreaded ‘Human Knot’. It would be a lie to say the Delegates swiftly made their way through this challenge. For a good while it seemed as if everyone was entirely comfortable with holding hands for eternity. Nonetheless, CULT persisted and eventually found their way out of the mess; not least thanks to some crucial guidance from Andrej, Mariami and Zuzana.

After the last challenge, no one could doubt the mental strength of CULT, but how about their physical strength? Giv-en the task of lifting each member of the Committee using only two fingers per person, a vast number of the Delegates did appear mystified. However they all battled through the finger pain barrier to mightily lift one another to glory.

CULT has definitely convinced us all of its ability to overcome any challenge put in front of it. If this type of performance continues, perhaps in years to come this Com-mittee will be remem-bered as a cult group. Get it?

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Teambuilding started with an introduction round. We had the opportunity to get to know Mad Max, Lucky Luke, Personal Pe-ter and Awful Adriana. Later on, the com-mittee room turned into a snow battlefield, whereas the chairs, or maybe I should say Asterix and Obelix, were trying to create a magical, Christmas atmosphere, singing “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”. And during the game, the missing presidential snowball was found!

CSI CRIM: Let’s solve this mystery!

After this very energetic part, our criminals spent some time coming up with two truths and one lie about each other. Whilst sitting back in a circle we got to know some really interesting facts. Here are some of them: Although Lucas was fat as a child, he has never ever eaten grasshopper. The fact that Maryia has never seen Star Wars before was quite a big surprise for every-body, but as Ondrej confessed to not having seen this movie, it caused general outrage. After this statement, we heard full of disappointment “I used to call you a friend!”.

Then there were many other games, all of

them full of laugh and joy. Hopefully each of CRIM’s delegates feels better/more com-

fortable now and is willing to move to the next step of an EYP session. Last but not

least just one little thing from me for the next upcoming days: good luck bad boys!

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The General Assembly and its rules can be enormously con-fusing. But how does the legislative process in the real Euro-pean Parliament work? What are the tasks and authorities of EU-politicians? How can their influence our lives? Vaclav Huk provides you with the basic information about the EU, its insti-tutions and the decision making process.

The European Parliament

The European Parliament (EP) forms one half of the EU’s legislature (the other half is the Council of the European Union). The 751 members (MPEs) are directly elected by EU citizens every five years on the basis of pro-portional representation. MEPs are elected on a national basis, but they are divided into political groups according to their beliefs. Each country has a set number of seats. It has 22 commissions with the same names and similar topics as we do in the EYP.

The European Council

The European Council gives direction to the EU, and convenes at least four times a year. It has one member per each member state plus the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission. The European Commission has been usually described as the Union’s “supreme political authority”. It is actively involved in the nego-tiation of the treaty changes.

Institutions.

The Council of the European Union

The Council of European Union (also called the “Council” and sometimes referred to as the “Council of Ministers”) forms the other half of the EU’s legislature. It consists of a govern-ment minister from each member state and meets in different composition depending on political area. Notwithstanding its different configurations, it is considered to be one single body.

The European Commission

The European Commission is and executive force of the EU. It is responsible for initiating legislation and it basically running the Union. It has 27 com-missioners (one for each state) for different areas of policy. Although the members are from different nations, they are bound to represent the EU as a whole rather then their home states. One of the 27 is the Commission President (currently José Manuel Durão Barroso).

The European Union has four main institutions: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Council. Competencies in implementing law are divided between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union while executive tasks are carried out by the European Commission and in a limited capacity by the European Council (not to be confused with the Coun-cil of the European Union).

Seems legit!

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First ReadingFirst reading starts with parliament adopting its position at on the legislative proposal. Afterwards,

parliament’s rapporteur prepares a draft report and Parliament adopts its position. Supposing that Parliament´s position does not contain any amendments – and if the Council also ac-

cepts the original proposal – the act is adopted. Supposing parliament adopts its position with amend-ments and the Council approves all the amendments, the act is adopted, too. In case that the Council

does not approve all the amendments or rejects them, the act is forwarded to the Parliament for a second reading.

Second ReadingAt second reading, Parliament examines the Council’s position. On the assumption that Parliament ap-proves the Council position or takes no decision within the time limits, the act is adopted. If Parliament

rejects the Council position by an absolute majority of its Members, the procedure is closed defini-tively.

Parliament can propose amendments to the Council position. The Parliament´s position is then sub-mitted to the Council and to the Commission. Supposing that the Council approves the Parliament’s amendments, the act is accepted. Providing the Council does not accept the Parliament’s amend-

ments, the Conciliation procedure is launched.

Conciliation and Third ReadingIn the third reading, a conciliation committee brings together representatives of the 27 Member States and an equal number of Members of the European Parliament. The committee considers the position

of the Council and Parliament’s amendments from the second reading.

Decision Making Process.

Legislative Act

Seems legit!

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They are young, they are innovative, they are smiling all the time. Their interest is Foreign affairs. They used to be just a bunch of

individuals, but this is not true anymore. After 5 hours of intensive teambuilding, they can consider themselves a team.

I have seen them building houses using only their bodies and jumping through the spider webs. I have even seen them running around, carrying rattan snowman and shouting that they found a

present for our lovely president.

I am re-ally looking forward to outcomes of their committee work. They have built pretty good rudiments and a communicational basis. Their time will come! To introduce them a bit more I bring you a short example of their plans and opinions.

Alexandra’s plan for a deserted island is celebrating Christ-mas and dying afterwards. According to Taner, Mathilde, the chair of their committee, looks like a male fairy, who does nothing else but eating kebab. If Sofia stranded on a deserted island, she would eat the only thing there: A tree. Martina does not know any gossip yet, but she is expecting some after the first night. Linda would like to interact with her committee members as much as possible. Maybe the time in the swimming pool will tell us more. Rebeka made a big mistake before actually coming to the session. The night before the session started, she slept just 4 hours. Filip is imaging his Chair as a flying piglet. Alexandra is expecting experiments from the 3 upcoming days. We can just wonder what this is supposed to mean. And finally: If Barbora stranded on a deserted island, she would just wish for something and wait. Highpotentials, aren’t they?

Brace yourself, AFCO is coming!

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Later on in the teambuilding, Justine proved herself to be – quite liter-ally – the Queen of the kissing game. She regularly took to the throne and

watched as her fellow Committee Members fought to kiss or protect her. ‘Two truths one lie’ gave the Delegates an opportunity to get to know one another that extra bit better. According to their lies we were present in a room of professional athletes, Russian natives, video game addicts and much more besides. The human knot activity tested the Delegates communicative and flexibility skills. After much discussion and confu-

sion IMCO eventually managed to untangle itself. Towards the end of the teambuilding, Marek impressed all of IMCO with his considerable apti-

tude in gliding through the Spider Web. If only the Committee could have been a little quicker in mastering the Swamp challenge.

Yesterday, IMCO got off to a flying start during their initiation into the 3rd NSC of EYP Slovakia. All social awkwardness and shy behaviour was thrown out of the window, with the expert help of the IMCO Chairs Tobias and Anna. Teambuild-ing began with a name memory game so that all the Del-egates could associate themselves with one another. The memory theme continued with what can only be called the ‘paper breakout’ activity, whereby a chosen Delegate had to force their way out of an enclosed space by rapidly remem-bering the names of their fellow Delegates. Kristina proved herself to be very adept at slamming the Committee Mem-bers’ heads with a damaging roll of paper.

It was just approaching the end of the teambuilding efforts when the Delegates carried out a revealing survey offering us all an insight into their percep-tions of the day’s happenings. Committee mem-bers shall remain nameless; however a couple did accuse Tobias and Anna of having appearances similar to Shrek and Snow White. It was also good to hear that many of IMCO are looking forward to learning new skills over the next few days and most importantly having fun.

Keep up the teamwork IMCO!

I’M COoperating!

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Some people claim that there is nothing more connecting peo-ple than the bottle of vodka. I cannot really say that I do not agree on that completely, but I truly believe that there must be something more hidden behind this word. One thing that can-not be questioned at this point is EYP. You meet each other once, maybe twice during a year. Summing up, you spend less than a month together. You do not even have time between the sessions to talk because in the Non-EYP- life, you have to deal with boring school or university matters. However, you actually consider him or her as your best friend. So, where is the catch?Long distance relations are like a constant, never-ending wait-ing for another meeting. At least you know that you are going to meet at some point eventually. And the first second when you see this longed for ages person is highly indescribable. The chill

of happiness and excitement makes you want to laugh and hold your cutty forever. Then you are having really fun – un-til the moment when you have to say “see you soon” arrives. But honestly, how would EYP look like if it lacked of enthusi-astic and crazy screams at the hallway of people that have not seen each other for a long time? You may wonder why EYP friendships are so much differ-ent from other ones. How peo-ple who know each other for five or even less days might feel so bonded to each other and actually stay best friends for the rest of their lives. The main rea-son is probably the magical at-mosphere of every EYP event. The time you spend during a session is just an unforgetta-ble experience and you always want to come back. What is more, when the session is over, you cannot share all the funny memories with your friends back home, because one who

has never experienced EYP ad-ventures simply will not be able to understand random sense of humor, the importance of play-ing Funky Chicken in the pro-cess of solving European prob-lems or the pleasure of drinking loads of coffee and eating tons of cookies.You end up attend-ing as many sessions as possi-ble just to have the possibility to meet yourclosest friends again. The consequence: You do not have enough time to discharge all your duties. Then you have even less time because you are spending sleepless hours talk-ing on skype with your EYP fel-lows. Just like a vicious circle. What can be said more? I used to cry during the Closing Cer-emony. Then I realized it is just a matter of time to meet each other again. So just stay tuned and do not let these friendships be forgotten.

Can we skype soon?Kasia Sokolowska explains why EYP-friendships are so special.

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credits.«united»was brought to you by

Luke Thomas (UK)

Kasia Sokolowska (PL)

Václav Huk (CZ)

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