Dom & Ellen travel to London for Mock EU Summit

Two Birkenhead Sixth Form College students joined a host of other A Level students from across the country in Westminster, as they took up roles as European leaders and officials in a mock EU Summit.

Over sixty students took part in the debates, representing the interests of each EU nation in teams, with the College’s Dom Laverick and Ellen Beattie competing as Belgium.

“I’ve never really quite appreciated just how comprehensive and complex these negotiations are and what goes into them at this sort of level.” - Second year student, Dom Laverick

Selected by Politics teacher, Jane Cavanagh, on the strength of their interest in the subject and ability in public speaking in Debate Club, Dom and Ellen travelled to London to take part in a summit to discuss post-Brexit Britain’s subscription to the European Arrest Warrant, and its participation in the Erasmus+ international study programme for young people.

The mock summit took place in the grandiose Church House, overlooking Westminster Abbey, and the event is now in its sixth year of giving 16-18-year-olds a chance to get to grips with decision-making processes and the topics and styles of EU debates.

Dom took the lead in the discussion about the European Arrest Warrant, which allows suspects to be returned more quickly to the country of their suspected crimes to face trial, while Ellen was the Belgian voice in debating the Erasmus+ programme.

Many of the processes of the real EU summits were replicated, with translators on hand to feed speeches through to the mock European leaders in their native tongues. Indeed, Ellen took it upon herself to address the council floor in French for her part in the Erasmus+ debate, much to the liking of the watching real-life First Secretary of the Belgian Embassy, Laurent Preud‘homme.

 

Ellen said: “It was quite scary but once I got into it, it was really enjoyable. I had some help from my French teacher on the speech so I felt confident about it and I think it went pretty well. The Belgian Ambassador was quite impressed!”

First year Politics student Ellen, who joined the College from Upton Hall School in September, continued: “Listening to different people’s views from across the country and meeting students from elsewhere was really interesting. Dom was really good with his part in the Arrest Warrant debate too – I think we made a good team!”

Second year, Dom, said: “Beforehand, I didn’t know an awful lot about the European Arrest Warrant so I did a lot of research and it was a really interesting topic, covering Interpol and different judiciaries in different countries. We looked at case studies like Julian Assange and Jeremy Forrest, the teacher who fled to France.

“I’ve never really quite appreciated just how comprehensive and complex these negotiations are and what goes into them at this sort of level.”

In an impressive and innovative move, Dom and Ellen were part of organising other students, who were representing similarly small population countries, into working as a team for greater effectiveness, and all off their own bats.

Dom said: “We organised a coalition between our Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg) countries and some of the Baltic and Scandinavian nations, and came up with a proposal that we could push forward. We met up in the lunchtime and came up with the idea. As small population countries, we thought it would work better and hold more sway if we organised ourselves into being able to vote as a block.”

Having applied to St Andrew’s University to read Classics next year, Dom is looking forward to getting involved in further Political extra-curricular activities, both at College and at university, especially in the light of the Brexit vote, which he feels he learned a great deal about during the mock EU summit.

Dom concluded: “They asked us our opinions on Brexit quite a lot. It was quite revealing how badly Britain came off in both deals, even in our mock debates. Britain ended up paying more and getting less in both proposals, which was quite a worrying prospect if it’s mirrored in real life.”

For more about studying Politics at Birkenhead Sixth Form College, click here.