Using the circular Exhibition Hall on the UIC campus, students in the EUR 3010 class held a model meeting of the European Council of the European Union (EU) on 23 May, 2013. EUR 3010 covers the political economy of the EU.
The European Council, essentially an EU summit, meets several times a year at the level of Heads of State, generally in Brussels. At the model meeting composed of students from the Government and International Relations Programme, Elaine Xiaoling ZHANG as President and Alexander Tian’en CHEN as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy led classmates who represented Member Countries in a discussion of two agenda items. The first concerned a proposed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the second, a draft decision on European defence policy and relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Exchanges on each item were spirited and the Delegates made suggestions from their countries’ points of view for modification or amendment of the draft decisions. At the end of two hours, each proposal had been agreed, with changes in the texts agreed by the Council in the course of the discussions.
The “family photo”, traditional at the end of meetings of the European Council in Brussels, was taken at the conclusion of the meeting.
Members of the EUR 3010 Class hold a model meeting of the European Council
(from DHSS, with special thanks to the ELC)
