ScienceView | Greece at the European Student Parliament on Science

From 20th to 22nd June 2014, five Greek students participated in the final event of the “European Student Parliaments” that took place at Frederiksberg City Hall in Copenhagen as part of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2014. Over three days, around 100 students aged 16 to 19 from all over Europe exchanged their ideas on the topic “The Future of our City”.

Giannis Katochoritis from Ekpaideutiria Giannopoulou, Melina Megalogianni, from Zanneio Protypo Peiramatiko Lykeio Peiraia, Dimitris Marousis fron 3rd Highschool of Glyfada, Dimitris Xynos, from Protypo Peiramatiko Lykeio Evaggelikis Sholis and Eleni Papailia-Voutsina, from 1st Protypo Peiramatiko Highschool of Athens represented Greece for the first time.

Equipped with bright ideas and suggestions, the students came together in committees to discuss various related subjects and problems and received great support from international scientists in the respective fields. The final resolutions written by the students were handed over to a representative of the European Commission in the end.

Beforehand, 18 successful national student parliaments which took place in 16 European countries, brought together around 1,500 students to express their ideas on future cities. Five students of each student parliament had the chance to participate in he finals in Copenhagen to represent both their country and topic.

20 June 2014: The first day started with a short welcome by the organisers and the mayor of Frederiksberg City Hall, Jørgen Glenthøj. After that, the students got together in their working groups and did some teambuilding activities to get to know each other and the moderator. After that, they brainstormed and exchanged some first ideas of their topic. At night, all participants went on a boat trip that took them through the city of Copenhagen.

21 June 2014: Day two was a whole day of working group sessions. The students deepened their knowledge in the subtopics and discussed major issues with specialised scientists. Together, they talked through the main points and tried to come up with some solutions. In the afternoon, the students prepared their debating sessions on the next and final day, by writing down their claims and resolutions. At night, they attended the European Science Slam, an event that was part of the Science in the City Festival.

22 June 2014: The parliamentary debates took place on the third day. The students followed the parliamentary procedure: presentation of claims, defending the resolution, attacking it, open debate and voting. The position papers of the student parliament were then handed over to a representative of the European Commission, Dr Jan Marco Müller. After that, the students were invited to the opening ceremony of the ESOF2014 at Carlsberg City District.

* The Greek Student Parliament took place in April in Ellinogermaniki Agogi school, for the first time in Greece and was organised by Science View and was co-organised by the National University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, and Ellinogermaniki Agogi, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education and Religions.

* The European Student Parliaments on Science is organised by Wissenschaft im Dialog and is co-funded by Robert Bosch Stiftung.