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Voss 2017 - 15th National Selection Conference of EYP Norway is now behind us - and we look back at wonderful days in the beautiful town of Voss✨Thanks to all delegates, teachers, and officials for making the session unforgettable! Have a look at the photos on the page, and stay tuned for videos being published within the next days. We hope to see you all again very soon!

Photo by: Lukas Ischlstöger

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This week I spent three days in Voss with European Youth Parliament. Together with two fellow classmates, we traveled to Voss by train. The train ride took seven and a half hours! After getting to know my fellow comity members, I quickly found out that I had been afraid for no reason. We became good friends after just knowing each other for about three hours. I ended up sharing a room with four other girls, and they were very nice. I hope we manage to stay in touch! After meeting them, I did not want to go home again. They were so nice, and I am so grateful that I met them.

Not only did I dare to talk to a lot of new people, and open myself for them. I also dared to speak in General Assembly. I did not stand in front of everyone, but I asked a question to another comity. This is something that I did not think that I would dare because this meant that everyone would listen to me. My group leader encouraged me, so I did it. However, the feeling I got after doing it was not good. But when thinking of it now, I am glad I did it.My whole EYP experience was amazing. I am looking forward to next time.

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Day One
Today was teambuilding. It was super fun! We were divided into our committees, so we got to know the people we were going to debate and make resolutions with. It was a little bit awkward in the beginning (as always), but we got to know each other pretty quickly and it got fun. I'm so happy with the people in my committee. We're all from different parts of Norway, and there's one girl from Portugal. I feel like we're a really good team, and that we'll work well together tomorrow and make a good resolution.

Day two
Today was committee work. We started pretty early in the morning, and ended around seven, with almost no breaks between. Our group was very good at discussion. For most of the day, we were productive. But at around four or five pm, we got very tired. So, therefore, our productivity decreased significantly. But we managed to pull all the way through, and in the end, we had a resolution that everyone was at least somewhat happy with. Our topic was mental health issues in Europe. It was at times fun to discuss. However, I'm not used to using such formal language. It was an unfamiliar feeling to have to phrase everything in the formal and very politically correct way it has to be phrased at EYP. But I noticed that throughout the day, it did get easier. It might be because some of the words were very repetitive, but anyways. It was nice to feel like I got better at it

Day three
The third and last day of this EYP session, which was General Assembly. This was the day I was sorta fearing because I expected it to be very boring. And in the beginning, it was. I thought the first few resolutions we were debating were boring. So I didn't really say much. But then we started debating stuff that was more interesting, so then it was very fun. I talked a couple times, probably not enough, but I'm happy. I thought it was especially fun to discuss smart cities and entrepreneurship, and realized my opinions weren't really that different from many of the others' opinions. This was a new form of debate for me. I'm not used to sitting in an auditorium and discussing with that many people at the same time, as well as the way of organizing comments/who got to talk when and what they got to say, was completely different from what I've done before. So it took some time to get used to. And it felt a bit scary in the beginning because it was so formal and there we're so many people listening and I was sorta talking on behalf on the group of people who were sitting there and listening. But it went well, after all, I think I added some good points to the discussion. I definitely got used to a new form of debate, learned something from it and got better.

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Wednesday, 13th September 2017

-European Youth Parliament

After a long seven hour and thirty minutes journey, we finally arrived in Voss. It is such a beautiful city! The landscapes are amazing and I immediately felt that I was in contact with nature. We went out for a walk and appreciated the beautiful landscapes of the Norwegian Vestlandet. At first, I thought that the EYP event would be very formal, and it ended up like that in the end, but in the first day, it was pure joy. We were starting the team building, we didn’t know anyone and suddenly had to ask each other's names in order to complete the task efficiently: we had to ask each other’s names in order to complete our name tags. After that, we played several games which were very creative and useful for the team building process. We learned that we had to work together in order to achieve our goals! So there were times when we had to agree with each other, argue and then come up with a final solution. Voss's natural beauty made all of these tasks very enjoyable, the location followed by the people who we had met made me realise how lucky I am to have had this opportunity of gaining, even more, knowledge and using this to help people around me, and hopefully one day help the ones who are far away from me :)  I must congratulate our team leaders for all their hard work. Although they were very young, they knew exactly what to do when we were shy, tired and this made us even more motivated to go through our EYP journey.

Thursday, 14th September 2017

-European Youth Parliament

On Thursday we had to meet our LIBE committee at 7:30….but we didn’t succeed. At 7:34 we were in a hurry trying to have breakfast but were told to leave immediately …This situation reminded me of one of the IB learning outcomes 'It is necessary to develop new skills as well as new challenges'. Our skill at that moment was to wake up early, eat quickly and be at our meeting on time. Because we showed up 5 minutes late we had to pay a price which was to spell our names while dancing and that's one of the reasons why we didn't show up late on the next day.

This day was one of the most important days during the EYP experience. We worked from 8:00 a.m  to 19:00 p.m, 11 hours of hard work. Although it was a long time to work, we had fun, discussed and listened to each other and by doing this we became a successful team! We were tackling serious global issues regarding media and fake news. We had to come up with media's main problems as well as efficient solutions to the main issues we pointed out without changing the media regulation in Europe. This made me reflect on how privileged we were to be chosen to tackle this point, a point which many people don’t know about since they are manipulated by media itself. I used what I learned in school about the study of language and its persuasive techniques to one of the committee's solutions. I said that we should invest in teaching students about media literacy so that they can improve their critical thinking skills and bring awareness about how fake news is structured in order to convince the public of an idea. I feel like this experience helped to broaden my horizons even more.

Friday, 15th September  2017

-European Youth Parliament

The day had come to show all our teamwork and commitment. We received the other committees resolutions regarding different global issues early in the morning and helped each other out to make our speeches sound the best as possible. Were we competing against other committees? Yes we were! But we were competing in a healthy way and helping each other out during all times.  The EYP conference looked pretty much like a court, where Politian's defend their points of view, debate and give a final solution to problems. This was a very competitive event in which we had to listen and think very quickly in order to impose ourselves and share our ideas efficiently. The conference was a great experience since we were all working together to come up with resolutions for a better European Union in the future. A great example of how well we worked as a team was when we were sending stickers to our leaders to suggest something or ask questions and they would immediately give us suggestions on how to improve our speeches and answer our attack questions.

Seeing all of these young people standing together to protect different global causes is very special because it makes me feel hopeful and sure that better days will certainly come. I left this great experience feeling very grateful for being there, for the moments I shared, for the friends I made and for every single thing that I  learned and I'm sure that I'll be using this in different life situations. We are now traveling back home with much more than only personal items in our luggage, we are taking with us everlasting experiences that will indeed contribute to better people and to a better world.

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@MarieAlveberg

In Voss, attending @EYPNorway with skilled IB-students from #Åsvgs. Excited to get familiarised with more wise, young people #teacher #IB

10.09 - 13. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

First committee out debating how European countries can inspire change in food consumption patterns in order to reduce food waste @EYPNorway

09.50 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

One of my students @AasVGS contributes in the second committee debating a comprehensive approach to mental health issues in Europe #EYP #IB

10.21 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

Econ debates the "LuxLeaks", and the approaches European countries should take to takle monetary corruption and improper taxation #EYP #IB

11.14 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

The next committee promotes a resolution debating how European  countries can address the growing problem of marine litter #environment #IYP

11.43 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

Student @AasVGS contributes in the committee on industry, trade & energy. Debating smart cities for smart growth @EYPNorway #Sustainability
13.13 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

Another great student @AasVGS adressing the problems regarding fake news and misinformation in the press #eyp #PressFreedom #medialiteracy

13.59 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

Wonderful openingspeech from the Committee on employment and social affairs. How should Europe face youth unemployed? #Entrepreneurship #EYP

15.03 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

The last committee @EYPNorway forefronts the important topic of European people no longer feeling represented by mainstream politics #populism

15.38 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

@MarieAlveberg

Impressed with the politically engaged students of the European Youth Parlament in Norway, which… https://www.instagram.com/p/BZEHvU5lyY-/

16.05 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

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If you have any questions about using the Portal, please get in touch with the EYP office at

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The official site of European Youth Parliament Norway

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About the European Youth Parliament and the EYP-conference in Norway  

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About the European Youth Parliament and the EYP-conference in Norway  

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The 15th National EYP-Conference in Norway took place from 13th-15th of September 2017 and gathered more than 100 young people from Norway and Europe. The European Youth Parliament (EYP), founded in 1987, is a unique forum designed to engage young people in shaping their future society. The EYP is one of the largest European platforms for political debate, interstructural encounters, political education and the exchange of ideas among young people. This year 3 students from 2IBA at Ås VGS contributed in EYP. Through their attendance, at the event, the students have acquired extensive skills and knowledge international teamwork, languages, intercultural communication and European politics. Participants have hereby taken an active part in European citizenship, forwarding democratic awareness and international mindedness.