BRIE Summer School in European Integration
for the students of the
Master Programmes in European Studies and European Public Administration
in Ruse and Giurgiu
5th April - 11th April 2011
Programme & Report
Monday, 5 April 2010
5h00 Departure with the bus from Ruse
5h30 Departure from Giurgiu
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
17h00 Arrival and check-in in Maison Notre Dame Chant d'Oiseau
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
10h00-11h00 Presentation by Klaus Hullman in room JDE 53 07/04 in the Council of the Regions
15:00-16:30 Visit to the European Parliament in room 4B49
Thursday 8 April 2010
08h50 Visit to the Visitor Centre of the European Commission
Welcome by Judit Jakab
09h00 Role and Function of the EU Institutions - Presentation by M. Miha Zebre
10h30 EU Neighbourhood Policy - Presentation by M. Robert Soltyk
11h30 EU Enlargement Policy - Presentation by M. Franz Cermak
14h30 Presentation by Lothar Jaschke, Council of the EU: Role of the Council & European Council and the EU's Western Balkan policy
17h00 Reception at the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the European Union
Friday, 9 April 2010
13h00 Departure to Luxemburg
15h30 Arrival in Luxemburg
20h30 Departure from Luxemburg to Giurgiu / Ruse
Sunday, 11 April 2010
10h00 Arrival in Giurgiu / Ruse
Endreport
Preparation
The organization of the summer school started mainly in November last year, when we found out that there should be some financial resources which could secure our trip to Brussels. We than booked a guest hostel for all of the students and accompanying persons and begun to set up the programme for the study trip. Caused by a misunderstanding in March the financial situation became somehow a problem. But because of Mimi Kornasheva's energy and enthusiasm and the strong support of Mr. Rudi Smolarzcek from the German Hochschulrektorenkonferenz and a lot of phone calls the German foundation Deutscher Stifterverband rescued summer school. This money was urgently needed for the transportation with the bus because otherwise it would have been too expensive for the students.
We than started with the precise planning: We provided the necessary documents for the visa application for the students from Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia and they all got their visa in time. Krassimir Koev and Mimi Kornasheva worked hard on the organisation of the transport and the financial matters, Lothar Jaschke set up the programme in Brussels and Heidi Fugunt was mainly communicating between all the groups and trying to keep all strings together.
The summer school
We really left very early Monday morning at 5o'clock, picked up students in Giurgiu and Bucharest and travelled without major interruption to Brussels. After 38 hours travelling we arrived at our accommodation "Maison Chant d'Oiseau". The conference centre is located in the building of a former monastery and was therefore surrounded by a beautiful park area. The accommodation itself turned out to be beautiful, clean, quiet and good to reach by public transportation. The meals (breakfast and dinner were included) were more than sufficient and always delicious.
The programme started the next day after a rich breakfast with the visit of the committee of the regions and the afternoon we spent at the European Parliament where we had by chance the opportunity to watch an extraordinary plenary session. The Romanian student Mariana Cristina Gheorghe stated: "It was quite extraordinary to see the members of the parliament debating important issues, such as Greece's financial problem and the 2020 strategy." Another student from Romania was slightly disappointed when she found out: "I could not help not to notice that the number of MPs presence in the plenary room was less than half of their total number. A fact that made me think that there are some similarities between Romania and Brussels. I was really amused by that." The evening most of the students spent in the city centre because Mr. Jaschke had invited us for a beer to a very special place. Everybody was a little bit shocked when we found out that one beer was 6 Euro... but that's Brussels, too...
The next morning we started already at 8 o'clock with our visit at the European Commission. There we had three presentations. First was about the legal service, Bela Violeta said that it was one of the most interesting parts of the conversation when Mr Miha Zebre explained how they could start a career in the European Commission. The second presentation covered EU Neighbourhood Policy (Mr Robert Soltyk) and the final one discussed the EU enlargement policy (Mr Franz Cermak). With both there was a broad discussion and Zulaa, a student of BRIE Ruse came to the conclusion that "the seminar was very educational and our colleagues hat so many questions regarding to the problems with their own countries." Bela Violeta also states "From that point on we started a discussion about Romania and Bulgaria and I realized one more time that EU impression about us is not a good one. Mr Franz Cermak said that he can say that we kept our word because before us becoming an EU
member we promised to fulfil some requirements. But they are still waiting for us to respect all that we promised. The EU opinion is that we don't do great effort to make it true. It was not a pleasant moment but the truth is somewhere in the middle".
After these three hours concentrating, listing and debating we had a lunch break and continued with the visit in the Council. There Mr. Lothar Jaschke invited us into the session hall of the Council where the entry is usually prohibited for visitor groups. He spoke about the role of the Council and the European Council and the EU's Western Balkan policy. By the end of the day the Permanent representation of Bulgaria invited all of the students to a visit. There we got presented what are the tasks of the permanent representation and how they work on fulfilling this task. They pointed out that the Bulgarian and Romanian representations are not as well developed as other representations of the member states. That's due to the fact being a member states for a short time. Liliana Serban was a bit sad that the Romanian Representation had not replied to our request of a visit.
Thursday morning was free time and the most students went into the city centre to stroll around, do a bit shopping, buy souvenirs, visit the chocolate museum and other museums. Then we took off to Luxembourg where we spent a few hours. The phantastic atmosphere of this very old castle town impressed the students. In the evening we gathered again for the next long trip to Salzburg. The group spent almost a whole day in Salzburg and visited many monuments. Among others they visited the home of Mozart.
Then we finally made our way back to Bukarest, Giurgiu and Ruse.
Summary
After the summer school every student had to submit a report about the summer school. To summarize I'd like to quote students out of these reports:
- Lavinia Draghici: "The study visit to Brussels was the first of all an opportunity to see clearly into practical theoretical knowledge acquired during years of study and secondly I can say that the knowledge gained is very useful for my work that I carry out as civil servant."
- Zulaa: "I enjoyed our trip very much not only because we visited the EU institutions but it helped me to change my assumption of EU and its goal. (...)I think that Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet made up the European idea to avoid a power imbalance in the world arena. (...) Europe needed a unification, to gather their power to make European voice heard in the world arena among those powerful players. I saw that their idea is on its way to be accomplished. On our way back home we visited Luxemburg and Salzburg in Austria. As I have never been in that part of Europe I was so excited and I enjoyed our trip so much. It left me an unforgettable memory."
- Irina Sanda: "The 5-11 period was for me very special, I can say that I had a dream vacation"
- Bela Violeta: " I would really like to say „THANK YOU” to those who offered me this great opportunity to fulfil a part of my dreams. I graduated International Relations and European Studies and during my studying period I read a lot of information and I had a lot of exams about European Union and its institutions and it was a fascinating world to me .When I heard about this opportunity to go and really see those places I realised I’m really lucky. I came back home full of great memories and a better image of what European Union means. So - Thank You one more time!"
- Khatuna Abashidze: "The chance to see the institutions of the European Union was the greatest experience I've ever had in my life. Thank you very much for such useful projects for the students!"
