Circle of power

Gráinne Fallervisits Strasbourg with the Irish students taking part in Euroscola, which sets up a youth parliament for the day

The babble of languages rings around the room, growing louder as more students file in. Taking photographs and pointing to the interpreters' boxes, they are ushered to their seats by officials. Suddenly the walls light up and a gasp rings around as the debating chamber is illuminated. This round room with tiered seating is known as the hemicycle. It is the main debating chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Today, on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, it is playing host to its future.

This event is known as the Euroscola programme. Run by the European Parliament, Euroscola is designed to enable young people from all over Europe to meet, learn about the workings of the EU, debate issues and generally get to know one another. The idea is essentially to form a European youth parliament for the day.

The students, who are now sitting in the blue seats of the MEPs who normally use the hemicycle, look around and try on the headphones that will enable them to hear the interpreters. It's such a large chamber that almost 700 students, from the 27 member states, the teachers who came with them and the parliament officials all fit comfortably, with seats to spare. A podium stands as the focus point of the room today, and 27 students, one from each country, are preparing to address the group. The excitement is palpable.

For Muireann O'Sullivan, one of the Irish representatives, that excitement was overtaken by nerves when she realised that the interpreters would translate only English, French, German and Spanish. The transition-year student from Killiney, in Co Dublin, had written her speech in Irish.

"I started asking around about the interpreters, and I realised that nobody was going to understand what I said," she says. "I had to translate it really quickly, and I'm not completely sure what I ended up saying. I was kind of preoccupied!"

Fortunately the speech - a mixture of English and Irish introducing her school and country - went down well despite the panic beforehand. Muireann was in Strasbourg with her school, Holy Child. It had won a public-speaking competition run by the National Forum on Europe; the Euroscola trip, for the team and 26 classmates, was their prize.

The students' initial presentations and a brief guide to the parliament filled the morning. A survey conducted through the parliament's electronic voting system proved enjoyable. The students used the same system that MEPs use, which consists of three buttons on each desk, one to agree, one to abstain and one to disagree. The results were shown on large screens at the front of the room. The initial test-question results proved amusing. "Are you participating in the Euroscola event?" went one question. A significant number of students answered "no". "It's interesting to see so many people claiming not to be here," commented one official, to much laughter.

With lunchtime came the Eurogame, which was, essentially, an exercise in integration. The students had to form groups of four, with each member a different nationality. The groups were then given a list of questions about Europe but the questions were in all sorts of languages. This meant that, as well as answering questions themselves, the students had to go around to other teams, asking them to translate the questions that they didn't understand.

"It was so much fun," says Rachel O'Hagan. "You felt really proud, actually, with people coming up, asking you to translate the questions in Irish." "It was almost like being at an Ireland match," says Amy Flanagan. "I suddenly felt really patriotic."

In the weeks leading up to Euroscola the students had been assigned to different groups that were going to discuss topics relevant to the union on the day. The topics ranged from the future of the EU to the situation of different countries in the years before they joined.

The discussion groups met after lunch in the parliament's committee rooms. With more than 100 students in each group, lively debates ensued. Elise O'Byrne-White describes what went on in her group. "It started off slowly enough. People were talking about the euro and so on. Once the issue of Turkish accession came up, though, it really flared up."

The committee rooms look like smaller versions of the hemicycle. The students were to discuss the issues and come up with a resolution that would then be voted on back in the debating chamber. Elise says: "It was interesting. People from Cyprus were debating very hard against the idea of Turkey joining the EU. I spoke about how Turkey is vital to Europe's diversity. If we had a European constitution it would set a standard that they would have to meet in terms of human rights and so on." Amy adds: "I found it interesting to see how people's opinions could be divided within a country. It was surprising to see how strong the differences were."

The groups assembled back in the debating chamber after their discussions. Brief presentations and points from the floor on the various issues proved interesting. Forming a resolution about such broad subjects proved difficult, however, and, after hearing about what went on in the other committee rooms, the students ended up voting on whether they agreed with the spirit of the discussion that went on.

When all the resolutions had been passed, the time came for the serious business of the Eurogame final. Four teams had made it, and the students' names were read out. Irish student Rebekah Browner couldn't believe it when she heard her name being called.

She says: "I heard it, but I just sat in my place for a few moments. I walked down really slowly then. It was so surreal." She looked nervous as she joined her team-mates by the podium. The four teams were asked a number of questions, to whittle them down first to two and then to one. By the end Rebekah's team was the one left standing.

"I didn't mind that part," says Rebekah. "If you get a question wrong as part of a team, nobody is pinpointing you." She wasn't expecting what came next. The four members of the team were each given a marker and a set of boards. They were then asked questions about, for example, the size of the parliament building.

The answers would be mainly guesswork, but the students had to write their guesses on the boards. The person with the guess that was farthest from the correct answer would be eliminated.

Rebekah says: "As the group got smaller I really felt all eyes on me. I was thinking: I don't mind if I lose, but it'd be amazing if I won."

It all came down to Rebekah and a French student. The final question was: how many kilometres is it from Strasbourg to Rome? Rebekah wrote 1,000km - closer than her opponent's guess. The room erupted as she stepped forward to receive a huge silver cup.

"Everyone was cheering," she says. "I was really proud. We hadn't managed to put as many points across in the discussions as some of the older students, so it was great to win this."

On the bus back from the parliament the girls are still chatting about the issues of the day. "This is definitely something I'd be interested in, in some form of career," says Elise.

"I'd really like to make a difference to people's lives. I think the most positive part of this programme is the fact that it allows you to come in and debate these issues when you're younger. We're coming in, hearing everyone's views. I think younger people are more open to that."

See www.forumoneurope.ie for more information