Developing an understanding of how political decision-making processes work, strengthening negotiation skills in a foreign language in an intercultural context, applying knowledge of European law to practical issues and generally living the European feeling - all this is offered by the Global Model EU, in which Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences has been successfully participating for ten years now. Our university was once again represented by a delegation at this year's event, which took place at the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) in Brussels from January 7 to 10, 2024.
The Global Model EU is a simulation project offered in cooperation between several US universities and the Brussels School of Governance. Rather than professional politicians, teams of students from Europe and America attempt to simulate an EU summit with intensive negotiations and decisions on real political issues. After selecting an EU country for the respective team, the team members work their way into the role of an official of this state and then simulate their actions in the European Council (heads of government) or in a formation of the Council of the European Union (ministers). Some also take on coordinating functions or participate in the press corps. The level and sharpness of the debate in no way take a back seat to the actual meetings. On the contrary, the intensively prepared delegations were once again fully committed to working out consensus solutions to enormously difficult problems. The usual varied supporting program, which included interesting discussions, greetings from well-known players from the real world of politics and visits to places worth seeing, had quite a motivating effect.
Various universities - this time from Belgium, France, Malta and, in terms of numbers, the USA - sent their groups to the event. The team from Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences was the only delegation from Germany. However, as has often been the case before, this was not the only special feature of our participation, as Prof. Dr. Sven Müller-Grune is happy to report: "We are able to give the event its own touch by the fact that our students bring a legal focus with them. On certain issues, we are often the ones who remind the otherwise more political science-oriented participants that well-intentioned decisions must also be legally enforceable."
Support for Ukraine and Moldova and migration issues on the agenda
This year, eleven students from the Faculty of Business Law - and in one case also from the Faculty of Computer Science - were particularly interested in the project. The respective position in the course of studies is not important: Professor Müller-Grune and Paul Kluth, research assistant at the Faculty of Business Law, were able to accompany students to Brussels who are either still in their first Bachelor's semester or about to submit their Master's thesis. Thanks to its size, this time the group from Schmalkalden took on the responsible task of representing three countries - Spain, Lithuania and Slovenia. The students were very convincing in their respective roles as head of government, foreign minister, justice minister or environment minister of each country. The agenda focused in particular on the issues that are currently affecting our continent and are well known from the daily press. These included support for Ukraine and Moldova and migration issues, as well as more specific concerns such as EU policy in the Indo-Pacific and environmental issues in the Arctic.
In this context, many thanks are due to the "Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Hochschule Schmalkalden e.V.", which has repeatedly supported the project with its donation. Further support was provided by the DAAD and the Faculty of Business Law. The participants can thus look back on a very valuable experience and are already looking forward to the next round at the beginning of 2025, when New York City will once again be the scheduled venue.