Model European Union Tallinn is unique due to its format enabling participants to play the roles of both MEPs and Ministers during the same simulation. During the first part of the week, participants discuss the proposals in Councils and then, they discuss them in political groups and in the European Parliament plenary session.
Commissioners and Chairs are selected through separate open-calls; these roles are meant for advanced “MEUers” or “MUNers” only.
There are three Commissioners at MEU Tallinn 2018, one for each Council. They will assist the Ministers and MEPs throughout the debates since they will represent the Commission and therefore be experts in their field. The aim of the Commissioners is to represent the original proposal discussed in the Councils (and later the Parliament). They explain the reasons of including one or another aspect in the proposal and support the participants with expert background information on the respective topic. They are part of the Content Team, which means they took part in the selection of the three proposals discussed during MEU Tallinn 2018 with the Head of Content and the Deputy Head of Content.
In MEU Tallinn, there will be 6 Chairs all together – 3 Presidents and 3 Vice-Presidents of the Councils. Their aim is to thoroughly know the process of discussing the proposals in the Council. The Chairs decide on who has the word, keep the order in the room and hence, they need to know thoroughly the Rules of Procedure.
During the second part of the simulation, the Chairs will switch from chairing the Councils into chairing Parliamentary Political Groups. The final plenary session will be chaired by one President and a Vice-President, assisted by a secretary, all of which will be chosen among the 6 Chairs and local supporting vice-chairs of Political Groups. The Chairs of MEU Tallinn are expected to have some background experience in MEUs, preferably in chairing and/or on the format of MEU Tallinn.
During the first part of the simulation, participants play the role of Ministers in three different Councils. They represent an EU Member State and they have to defend their country’s interests while negotiating amendments to the proposal. It is not possible for the participants to represent the country they are coming from. Thanks to this rule, all participants have to go through some preparatory research work on their proposal. The Commissioners are here to help the participants during this preliminary work as well as during the simulation.
During the second part of the simulation, participants embody MEPs from all current political groups. Therefore, they have to defend their political group’s interests, which might differ from the ones of the EU Member State they were representing during the first part of the week. They have to form alliances with other political groups in order to pass amendments during the plenary session.
Having this unique opportunity to play both roles during the same simulation and for the same proposals makes the simulation more challenging for participants, but also more exciting and interesting. Indeed, they understand the complexity of the EU decision-making process better since they have the chance to see how different the work is in the Councils and in the European Parliament.
There will be three journalists at MEU Tallinn 2018, meaning one for each Council and therefore each proposal.
The journalists will have the chance to write articles, take pictures and record interviews with the support of the Journalists Coordinator who will also play the role of Editor-in-Chief during the simulation. Furthermore, during press conferences, the journalists have the challenging opportunity to find key trigger points of the past discussions in the Councils/Political Groups. In this way, they also challenge the participants (who are either ministers or MEPs) to diplomatically explain their decisions and conclusions made within the work of the respective body.
The aim of having journalists during the event can be divided in three main areas: making the simulation more lively and thrilling for all participants; spreading the MEU Tallinn atmosphere through all relevant channels; and last but not least, keeping memories to pass on to the next editions (pictures, videos…).
For more information about the different roles available at MEU Tallinn 2018, please contact us.
Apply as a participant for MEU Tallinn 2018 there