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F I R S T E U R O A F R I C A N Y O U T H P A R L I A M E N TB E R L I N 2 0 1 4

KaleidoscopeKaleidoscope

E D I T O R I A LLeave your handprint

Flights with layovers from another continent, train rides from the other side of the country or boat trips across the Baltic Sea - arrivals ranging from different corners of the two continent, all the way from Ghana to Sweden, Zimbabwe to Czech Republic and Austria to Sierra Leone. No matter if you travelled two or twenty-two hours to get here, we have the same message for you: welcome to Werbellinsee (p. 4). It is thrilling to have you here and having kicked off the very first day of the first Euro African Youth Parliament session with you.

Each of us can fulfill the sentence “I am here because…”. We are all here for a reason, let it be debating the committee topic and taking part to the team-building together with other committee members, to chairing a committee or living the busy lives of the organisers constantly working for our best.

Our media team, eight journalists and us three editors, have our own vision to fulfill here too: we will be accompanying you throughout the upcoming week, visualising your experiences in film, paper and photographs, giving you an overview of what is happening around you and enabling you to re-flect back to these memories once we depart. This is for you to take your time and to fully enjoy the ride. We are confident that all of your individual experiences put together will form a beautiful kaleidoscope of memories, which will bring you joy for a long time after.

The chairs were asked to give you a word of advice (on p.6-9) – here is ours: what you share with the world is what it keeps of you – so take part, discuss, look around, notice, ask, listen and share with those around you, and you will leave your mark in a similar manner that you pressed your handprints to the canvas.

With excitement, Harm, Oona and Sebastian, your editors

E D I T O R S

Oona Kiiskinen (Finland)Harm van Leeuwen (Netherlands)

V I D E O E D I T O R

Sebastian Hojas (Austria)

J O U R N A L I S T S

Beatrice Adu (Ghana)Zephyr Bruggen (Netherlands)Valerie Donschachner (Austria)

John Essilfie Jnr (Ghana)Emiljo Jazxhi (Albania)Thomas Pappoe (Ghana)

Lewin Schmitt (Germany)Portia Solomon (Ghana)

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CO

NT

EN

TS

Agreement on economic partnership, but… 5

The chairs about their topics 6–9

When the cat’s away 10

International jokes 11

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Welkom

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Welcome

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K a l e i d o s c o p e

4 F i r s t E u r o A f r i c a n Y o u t h P a r l i a m e n t

THE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT, like its name suggests, is a pact

between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) re-

gions to promote trade between the two groupings. The agreement has had

a checkered history since it was first signed in Cotonou, Benin in 2000. While

civil society groups continue to put pressure on their governments because, as

they put it, ACP countries especially have very little to benefit, trade still went

on because economies must survive.

The desire to continue trading activities gave birth to the “EPA light” signed in 2007. The European

Commission sees the agreement as a means of trade with their African and Pacific countries and

thereby opening its market for a fair trade. The European Union has put pressure past 10 years

on some 72 countries that form the nucleus of the trade pact to sign the document or lose access to EU

market. One of the arguments put forward in support of Economic Partnership Agreement is that it will

increase trade turnover but at the same time, experts have said it will compel ACP countries to liberalise

an overwhelming proportion of its imports despite lack of clarity. That notwithstanding, it is also true

that products from Africa stand the risk of being slapped with huge tariffs without the EPA.

After 10 years of tough negotiations, on 24th January 2014, West African and the European Commission

negotiators reached a major breakthrough on what now will be the first regional economic agreement

since 2007. Under this deal, 75% of trade is to be liberalized over the next 20 years, rather the EU request

for 80% over 15 years. The European Commission further agreed to stop all export subsidies to West Afri-

can Countries. West Africa also had to compromise to reach an agreement, notably by accepting the con-

troversial most favoured nation treatment clause. Regarding the financing of development, the amount

agreed under the EPA Development Programme (PAPED) remains at 6.5 billion euros for the period 2015-

19, and there is no explicit commitment to provide “additional resources”. West African countries appear

to have closed the deal on the Economic Partnership Agreement but the onus now lies on other African

and pacific countries to examine the deal critically to iron out sticky points.

It is instructive to know that the youth from these two continents have not been fully engaged on

deliberations prior to the signing of this document even though their lives will be greatly affected by its

success or failure. The Euro African Youth Parliament exists to influence policy and ensure that the con-

cerns of the youth are represented. Member’s primary interest is to give a voice to the youth since the

conventional parliaments cannot fully express the concerns of the youth rather than themselves. At the

first ever Euro African Youth Parliament, delegates and their chairs hope to re-examine this agreement

and come out with a resolution to serve its interest.

by Thomas Adotei Pappoe (Ghana)

BUT…

AGREEMENTON ECONOMICPARTNERSHIP,

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AFET

TOPICS & CHAIRS

Arif Abdeldjalil from Algeria &

Felicia Dahlquist from Sweden

Advice

Importance

Impact

Arif: “Seeing the fact that China is per-ceived as the sleeping economic giant and keeps on expanding its local investments in Algeria, this promotes for a better eco-nomic growth of my country.”

Felicia: “Since the world is so globalised, what happens in China and what China as a global player does in the rest of the world always has an impact on Sweden and the other European countries.”

Starting tomorrow, you will have the unique chance of discussing vital global political issues with peers from over 50 countries around Europe and Africa. Here you can see what the chairs of the confer-ence have to say about their topic. They explain why it is important, what impact they hope our work will have and what advice they have for you!

Arif: “The delegation will have a unique opportunity to discuss the topics from dif-ferent angles that reflect the current real-ity, resulting in that the delegation will be more aware about the background of the topic and its impact.”

Felicia: “There are very biased stories in the media about the topic, so the discus-sions hopefully will show the dynamics and diversity of the topic, reflecting both its positive and negative aspects.”

Arif: “Being offered a chance to get in-volved in this interactive youth platform, it is the delegates’ responsibility to take the most advantages out of this and to make it a remarkable experience.”

Felicia: “Make the most out of this oppor-tunity, think outside the box and meet as many people as possible.”

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AFCOGbemisola Osadua from Nigeria &

Daniels Grinevics from Latvia

Advice

Importance

Impact

Gbemisola: “In my opinion, the topic is im-portant because it deals with an issue that is of global relevance as it relates to the re-lationships amongst nations in the world.”

Daniels: “I think the topic is important be-cause the Security Council is deemed to be the most powerful institution in the world, and it’s failing miserably.“

Gbemisola: “The resolution could, to a large extent, influence future decisions as regarding the reform of the UN Security Council.”

Daniels: “I am very interested in the con-sensus that will be reached by the commit-tee, people from very different countries that are greatly affected by the decisions of the Security Council. This way, I hope the resolution will result in the Security Council being a voice of reason instead of being entangled in diplomatic issues.“

Gbemisola: “Give your best and make sure your input is relevant.”

Daniels: “Please be open-minded and take a rational look at things by accounting for all interests – and get some good sleep.”

AGRIMegan Smith from Ireland &

Olusola Usan from Nigeria

Advice

Importance

Impact

Olusola: ““Africa currently contributes a meagre 3% to global trade and that is ab-solutely ridiculous behind Europe which has over 19% contribution to global trade. We need to sit and match strengths and weakness together and be able to see a better Africa where people will hunger no more.”

Megan: “After the conference, I hope to see the resolution implemented and make people aware of it. There is no point in us being here and our work coming to noth-ing.”

Megan: “If all delegates get involved and get ideas across, it will be way better for discussions, final resolution and the con-ference in general”.

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ITRE IITeresa Stadler from Austria &

Vera Asokwa Ofori from Ghana

Advice

Importance

Impact

Teresa: “Even if you are really tired and just want to sleep – resist. I promise that it will be worth it in the end.”

Vera: “You are the difference, give it your best shot.”

Teresa: “From a European perspective, the EU is the largest donor in terms of devel-opment and technical assistance, which is why we should emphasize the importance of aid giving in Africa.”

Vera: “It is essential to put measures in place to direct aids at community priori-ty projects, while respecting the rights of business entities, thereby leading to the full impact of CSR programmes in Africa.”

Teresa: “What we are aiming for is lasting global partnerships with responsible and sustainable aims that will have a signifi-cant impact on the future of the coopera-tion between Europe and Africa.”

Vera: “It is a unique opportunity to be part of a great history; be yourself, open your mind, make an effort and be amazed at what you could contribute to making the world a better place.”

ENVIAdelaide Otoo from Ghana &

Sophie Duf field from Britain

Advice

Importance

Impact

Sophie: “There are growing challenges in the world to do with climate change and depleting natural resources. We need sus-tainable development so that future gen-erations will not be affected.”

Adelaide: “African leaders should learn from the European experience. Africans must consider the environment, so that they do not compromise food safety. As much as we as Africans want to develop, there is a lot of knowledge. There’s a lot that we can take from the Europeans.”

Sophie: “Be enthusiastic and throw your-self into everything! Because this will help you to learn more and contribute better to discussions.”

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CULT

DROIEmmanuel Ashong from Ghana &

Irem Tümer from Turkey

Advice

Importance

Impact

Emmanuel: “There are many people mov-ing over the earth now, more than ever did. The difference however is that this time the people who are migrating are of working-age. These are all people that can contribute to the economy, but are mov-ing away from their native countries. It is very interesting that this topic focuses on the positive aspect of staying at home, that it considers the question of not mi-grating at all.”

Irem: “Turkey, given its geographical posi-tion, has a lot of immigration from African countries. We are not even in Frontex, so there is a lot of uncontrolled immigration as well.”

Emmanuel: “We’re looking forward to open and frank discussions with you!”

Irem: “And hope you have a bit of fun as well in the meantime!”

Oksana Korchak from Ukraine

Advice

Importance

Impact

“Some European countries especially in smaller cities are unable to provide basic computer literacy and that makes difficult for the youth to be competitive on the job market. Africa is not the only continent with such problems but a lot more atten-tion must be attached because the prob-lem is widespread.”

“There still must be concern as to how ef-fectively young people in both continents can learn the skills required for a modern workforce if they do not have access to consistent, quality internet.”

“I am excited that contributions will come from different backgrounds which will go a long way to enrich the final resolution.

Delegates should be open minded when the discussions starts, and make final preparations so that they can provide in-formed contributions which are feasible.”

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FOR the delegates, Thursday was an

exciting day of arrival, while the of-

ficials spent the day with the final

preparations for the session. When

asked, they decided to share some of

their funny moments with us.

The chairs spent a lot of

time at the lake planning

some teambuilding games.

Unsurprisingly, Adelaide Otoo

(Ghana) was feeling very cold

when they finally started making

their way back; the look of sur-

prise on her face when the oth-

ers decided to buy ice cream is

therefore understandable.

Vera Ofori (Ghana), on the

other hand, was exhausted. Faced

with the long climb up the stairs,

she desperately wished some-

body would carry her up. Nelson

Amo (Ghana) apparently read her

mind and played the part of the

perfect gentleman, and Vera got

her piggy-back ride up the stair-

way.

This move might be seen as

the result of a lesson the other

chairs taught Nelson, who had

spent the morning nominating

“volunteers”. After a while, the

others decided to turn the tables

on Nelson, after which he be-

came the first to “volunteer” for

everything.

by Valerie Donschachner (Austria)

CAT’SWHEN THE

AWAY

Olusola Usan (Nigeria) and Megan Smith (Ireland) were

subject to marriage arrangements; when Olusola told Megan

he was thinking about doing his PhD in Ireland after they

had spent half an hour talking about Ireland, James Benge

(Britain) happened to overhear and promptly informed them

that he entirely supported their marriage, stating that he

positively encourages African-European relationships.

At some point during the day, Arif Abdeldjalil (Algeria),

Felicia Dahlquist’s (Sweden) personal assistant, decided she

should wear a turban. Felicia spent the rest of the day enjoy-

ing the advantages of turbans, in the course of which Lewin

Schmitt (Germany) managed to take a picture of our “turbo

chairs”.

Speaking of Arif: being asked what his most entertain-

ing moment of the day was, he could not quite decide and

looked to Megan for help, asking: “Hey Megan, do you re-

member something funny that happened today?”. Megan

looked at him blankly and replied: “I have no idea what you

just said, but I know I am not happy about it.”

A few minutes later, Megan, Olusola and Daniels Grinevics

(Latvia) began to talk about Megan’s unique way of writing.

When Nelson noticed the way Megan was holding her note-

pad, he began to try to turn it around. Megan was trying to

explain this habit of hers when Dan came along and asked:

“So how do you write on a board?” Retelling the story, the

three of them decided to answer the question, resulting in

Megan being lifted up and held horizontally in order to write

on a Post-it on the wall. And a final word of advice: James is

the happiest person on earth when singing the Moose Song.

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Man: ‘Knock knock’Reply: ‘Who’s there?’

Man: ‘Latvian’Reply: ‘Latvian who?’

Man: ‘Please open door. Is cold.’

(Daniel Grinevics)

A German and an American are having a com-petition about who can build a house faster.

After 6 weeks, the American updates his status: ‘only 16 more days and I’m done’. The German

replies, ‘only 16 more forms and I’m done’.

(Lewin Schmitt)

Teacher: ‘Use reserve in a sentence’Kola: ‘I reserve my comment.’

(Olusola Amusan)

How do you know that a Finn likes you?

…

He stares at your shoes instead of his own.

(Oona Kiiskinen)

Between ages 16 and 18, a woman is like Africa, virgin and unexplored. Between 19 and 35, she is like Asia, hot and exotic. Between 36 and 45, she is like America, fully explored, breathtakingly beautiful and free with her resources. Between 45 and 56, she is like Europe, exhausted but still has

points of interest. After 56, she is like Australia, everybody knows it is down there, but who gives a damn.

(Vera Ofori)

Akpos and his friend visited Israel and decided to pick a boat to see the beauty of the River Jordan. When he asked the boat-

man how much it will cost, the boatman said 500 dollars.

Akpos replied, ‘no wonder Jesus walked on the sea’.

(Thomas Adotei Pappoe)

LATVIA

GERMANY

NIGERIA

FINLAND

GHANA

INTERNATIONALJOKES

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