The second Council Meeting of the working year 2011/2012 took place in Marseille, France, organised by European Democrat Student’s (EDS) member organization UNI-MET France from 7 to 11 December 2011. The Council Meeting was linked to the EPP Congress, that took place from the December 7-8. Over 70 participants from EDS member organisations were gathered at the event.
On Tuesday, December 6, EDS Chairman Juraj Antal took part in a panel of CES and the North African Students from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia joined by Lebanese and other Middle Eastern students. The panel headed by the Director of the International Republican Institute, Jan Surotchak, was entitled, “Educational Reform in Northern Africa”. “EDS is willing and capable of providing young volunteers that have an experience with transitional stages after government changes” said Chairman Antal and “is able to assist by capacity building trainings of young North Africans to build up the grass roots of their new societies”, he concluded. At the same time EDS Secretary General Samuli Kauranne represented EDS at the EPP Political Assembly at Senator Mayor of Marseille's office. Furthermore, Chairman Antal met with Governor Tim Pawlenty ret., who held a business breakfast speech and both concluded that IRI and EDS’ efforts are in the same direction and have crossing interests.
The EPP Congress gathered over 1300 delegates from all over Europe, including guests from the Arabic Spring countries, the Middle-East and the United States. EDS helped the EPP Congress by providing 6 assistants that helped EPP with the registration. The first Plenary Session at the Congress was opened with a welcoming speech by Senator Mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin. EPP President Wilfried Martens and EPP Secretary General Antonio Lopez Isturiz welcomed all the delegates and guests of the Congress.
That same plenary, Chairman Juraj Antal also held his speech; where he focused on the moral issue of this ongoing crisis, which in his mind is the loss of trust of EU citizens. Chairman Antal put the Economic crisis in Europe in the context of history, of the importance of the trust from the society to the state, politicians and the EU as well as the importance of trust to each other, he also mentioned “Knowledge is Power” - an Europe wide campaign of EDS which focuses on Higher Education and Research, and will be launched in 2012. Chairman Antal called upon the Centre right in Europe, which is today represented by the EPP to take leadership and ask governments not to cut budgets on higher education in times of crisis, so the mistakes of the past are not relived.
Other speakers at the plenary sessions at the EPP Congress was Eugenia Carr (Tymoschenko), the daughter of former PM of Ukraine that dedicated her speech to talk about the hope of freedom and to her mother as a symbol of fight of freedom in Ukraine. The Chairman of the EPP Group of the European Parliament, Joseph Daul called for Europe to choose the right decisions and build strong house of Europe together. EDS supported the Congress Document “Moving Europe forward: A stronger Europe to stand for our Values and defend our Interests”, which was successfully confirmed by the delegates.
On Thursday morning, Chairman Antal met with Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, and expressed his sincere support for the upcoming Presidentail elections in Finland hoping that Sauli Niinistö will be the second center-right President of Finland.
EDS as the only EPP affiliate organisation doing so, organised a side-seminar with panel discussions. The first panel was about higher education institutes in USA and Europe; the advantages and disadvantages of public and private universities. The panel was led by EDS Vice-Chairman Jean-Baptiste Dabezies ret. with panelist José Canosa from the Fundacion para el Analisis y los Estudios Sociales (FAES) in Madrid, and EDS Vice-Chairman Bernhard Krall. The second panel was led by EDS Vice-Chairwoman Cathrin Gräber ret., with the theme “The role of Europe in the world”. The panelists were Günther Krichbaum, Member of the German Bundestag, Head of Europe Committee, Jean-Dominique Giuliani from the Paris based Fondation Robert Schuman and Lithuanian MEP Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė.
After the EDS seminar, the second plenary of the EPP Congress took place, and was opened by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel. The plenary continued with a comprehensive list of speakers with almost all EPP head of states in Europe, as well as President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and the President of European Parliament Jerzy Buzek that encouraged our political family to recreate the idea of a European dream calling to make radical decisions. Both men reiterated that EPP needs to face changes in regard of integration and appealed that politics have to deal with all the most important issues strategically.
On Friday morning, it was time for a joint EDS and YEPP panel at Fort de Ganteaume on the topic of how to solve the debt crisis in Europe. The panel was led by YEPP Vice-chairman Colm Lauder and featured French MEP Constance le Grip, UMP National Secretary in charge of International Commerce, Chairman of EDS Jacob Lund-Nielsen ret. and Christian Kremer, Deputy Secretary General of the EPP as panellists. After the panel the two organisations were receiver by the Mayor of Marseille in the City Hall near the Old Port. Senator-Mayor of Marseille, Mr. Jean-Claude Gaudin welcomed the delegates and pointed out that Marseille has a specific feature; it is the largest city in France with an EPP Mayor. In the afternoon the Permanent Working Group sessions took place at the Fort de Ganteaume.
On Saturday December 10, the second Council Meeting of the working year 2011/2012 was held at Fort Ganteaume. The meeting started with guest delegations greeting the council members. This time EDS was hosting delegations from UNYM Georgia, represented by Archil Tsertsvadze, Studicentro Italy by Virgilio Falco, Juventude Popular Portugal, represented by its President Miguel Pires da Silva, NKSU President, Stephen Johnsen, and finally Chairman of our fraternal organisation DEMYC - Jani Johansson who greeted the Council by a letter due to his early departure.
Then Chairman Juraj Antal reported about his work between the Council Meetings. Discussion and adoption of motions and of the conference resolution followed. After an engaging debate, the Council finally voted in favor of the three PWG’s motions, which were all passed by the Council Meeting. Furthermore, the Council voted in favor of the Conference Resolution titled “Multiculturalism in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities”, which was also the topic of the Marseille’s Council Meeting.
The financial report and the last amendments to 2011 Budget took place. The Campaign “Knowledge is Power”, which is going to be one of the strongest political tools of EDS this upcoming year, and the Higher Education Research Project were presented by the Bureau.
Approaching the end, Romain Simmarano, Vice Chairman of EDS, stepped down from his position and an extraordinary election of one Vice Chairman will be held in Zagreb. Auditor for the financial year 2011 Vladimír Škola likewise stepped down and Thomas Benedikt Thaler was elected as a second auditor according the statutory requirements. Finally, the member organisations of EDS presented to the Council their latest news and updates before the council concluded to the tunes of the European Anthem.
EDS is a member association of