All-Ukrainian Inter-Rail 2009

We believe that youths in the Ukrainian regions have fewer opportunities to get involved in the activities of international NGOs in general and the European Youth Parliament in particular, but what is even more important – to get a chance to debate and voice their own opinion regarding urgent domestic and international issues. There also is little knowledge about the European integration and democratic decision making processes, thus the need for the development of civil society in Ukrainian regions exists.

The objective of the ‘EYP-Ukraine Inter-Rail’ project is to:
o engage Ukrainian youth in the discussions and debates on burning problems of their regions and common Ukrainian and European issues,
o allow them to share new approaches to coping with these issues,
o provide Ukrainian youth with the experience of research, debate and process of democratic decision making for regional, national and international political issues.

The project will involve its participants in a 2-day session of the EYP. At each session there will be four committees, each of them working on a separate topic covering the issues of Cooperation with Neighbourhood countries, Human Rights Protection, Ethnic, Minority and Gender Equality, Immigrants integration into the society and others. The session in each city will resemble a standard EYP session and include the following activities: Teambuilding, Committee Work and General Assembly. At an EYP session youths are allocated before the event to committee groups on the basis of maximum diversity of age, gender and home location. After a period of “ice-breaking” and teambuilding they discuss a pre-assigned and already researched topic which is relevant to one on the agenda of the respective EU Parliament Committee.

The task of the committee is to write an EP format resolution in English, which contains introductory (background information) and operative (policy) clauses. The committee group aims to reach a consensus agreement on the resolution text. This resolution is then presented, debated and voted on at a General Assembly of all committees. There is no role play – all participants must make their own personal voting decision based on personal views on the content of the resolution and the GA debate. The resolution document is, in effect, a policy document. Such exercises provide an understanding and experience of researched and informed policy making, writing of manifestos, voter decision making, as well as public speaking and open debate participation.

The ‘EYP-Ukraine Inter-Rail’ project will focus on discussing such topics as: o The Russia / Ukraine gas crisis in 2009 as the most serious security event in relation to gas that has ever happened in Europe: how can any re-occurrence of this kind of crisis be prevented?
o Regional differences in the historical context: how to mitigate the cultural, lingual and historical discrepancy in order to achieve mutual development of the regions and avoid interregional contradictions?
o Bilingualism in Ukraine: how to ensure national literacy interests and avoid conflicts with minorities?
o Russia/Ukraine naval cooperation: how to strike a balance between national security and good neighbourhood relations?

Preliminary Schedule of EYP-Ukraine Session

DAY 1 Till 10:00 Arrival of chairs’ team to the city (bus/train)
9:45 Meeting delegates at teambuilding venue
10:00 – 10:45 Introducing EYP and session details to participants
10:45 – 11:15 General teambuilding
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee-break
11:30 – 13:00 Teambuilding in committees
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 16:45 Committee Work
16:45 – 17:00 Coffee-break
17:00 – 19:00 Committee Work, resolutions’ writing
After 19:00 Dinner for chairs, transfer to accommodation venue

DAY 2 9:45 Meeting delegates at General Assembly venue
10:00 – 11:30 General Assembly, resolutions 1, 2
11:30 – 12:00 Coffee-break
12:00 – 13:30 General Assembly, resolutions 3, 4
13:30 – 14:00 Closing ceremony
14:00 Lunch for chairs, free time in the city, transfer to the next city