EU 01.07.2012 - 07.07.2012

The IFIL trip to the EU Institutions 2012 aims at giving you an inside view of the European Union. By travelling to Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg over one week we will visit the most important institutions and meet involved and relevant players and actors. By talking to diplomats, parliamentarians, journalists and lobbyists we will get a first hand impression of their work and their ideas. We will discuss different aspects of the European integration or the current Euro crisis, the problems and challenges the EU system is facing as well as the role of Switzerland within and towards the union. The participants will get the unique opportunity to ask all their burning questions and to encounter the daily life of three cities building the heart of the EU.

In the last six decades the EU was one of the most important reasons to safeguard peace, democracy and economic wealth in Western European countries. In record time the EU member states developed a unique political system including more than 480 million people living in 27 countries. According to that the general aim of the trip is to introduce the participants to the different aspects of European integration as well as current questions and problems. The three cities Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg are hosting the most important institutions of the EU including thousands of international people working in, for or together with the union. Participants shall have the chance to get to know the EU on site and by speaking with involved actors directly rather than through newspapers or other medias.

Things we want to accomplish on this trip

• visit and get to know the most important institutions of the EU
• meet various involved actors and players
• discuss different aspects of the European integration or the current Euro crisis, problems and challenges the EU system is facing as well as the role of Switzerland within it
• learn more about the three main cities of the EU and their interactions
• experience cultural activities together with a group of young and interested people

Highlights

In Brussels we will get to see the European Parliament from inside by taking a guided tour and we will meet a Member of the EP. We will also talk to a Member of the Commission and visit the office of the European Free Trade Association EFTA in order to learn more about European Integration. The relation between Switzerland and the EU will be the main topic of the visit with the Ambassador at the Swiss Mission to the EU. And the permanent delegate of Economiesuisse in Brussels will be another Swiss representative to meet. Besides we will visit the NATO Headquarter, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Of course this week will not only be about politics. We will also do some sightseeing and encounter cultural aspects or the nightlife of the cities, as for example by doing some famous beer tasting in Brussels.