500 young Catalans put themselves in the shoes of MEPs with the project “Know the European Parliament”
The European Parliament Office in Barcelona and the Learn to Check association are promoting the “Know the European Parliament” initiative, a cycle of innovative workshops that takes place from March 11 to May 28 throughout Catalonia. This immersive proposal allows half a thousand secondary and high school students to experience, through a virtual role-playing game, how European parliamentary democracy works and what role the European Parliament plays in the decision-making of the European Union.
The project, aimed at students of the European Parliament’s Ambassadors Schools programme during the 2024/2025 academic year in Catalonia, consists of some twenty workshops where participants will take on the role of MEPs. Thanks to a virtual role play developed by the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Communication in 2024, students put themselves in the shoes of European legislators and have to negotiate, debate and vote on a legislative proposal with an impact on the daily lives of citizens.
Students have to work on a new regulation on food labelling according to their greenhouse gas emissions. Following the actual legislative process, they have to agree on a common position within their fictitious political group, table and discuss amendments to the committee and, finally, put the proposal to the vote in plenary.
In addition to bringing European institutions closer to young people, “Know the European Parliament” seeks to encourage critical thinking, reflect on disinformation and promote democratic values among citizens. With this practical and participatory experience, students will experience first-hand the challenges and responsibilities of MEPs, while better understanding the functioning of European policy.
The ‘Know the European Parliament’ project is the second collaboration between the European Parliament’s Office in Barcelona and the Learn to Check association. Before the European elections of June 2024, the sessions “No te te pren la pren!” were organized, with the support of the Department of European Union and Foreign Action of the Generalitat de Catalunya. On that occasion, 700 students from 3rd and 4th ESO and 1st Baccalaureate from the Ambassadors Schools program participated in digital verification workshops in the classrooms. The sessions included examples of disinformation related to the European elections and invited students to reflect on the impact of these contents on the results of the elections and on the erosion of institutions and democracy.
European Parliament Ambassadors Schools
This programme is an initiative of the Directorate General of Communication, which was inaugurated in the academic year 2015/2016, with the aim of bringing the operation of the legislative and political work of the institution closer to the students of secondary schools, in particular to the groups of 4th of ESO, 1st and 2nd of Baccalaureate and the medium degree of Vocational Training.
The centres participating in the European Parliament’s Ambassador Schools programme undertake to maintain an updated InfoPoint in the educational centre on the European Parliament; work on online materials provided by the institution (available in the 24 official EU languages and co-official languages in Spain); carry out activities throughout the academic year related to the EU; and celebrate 9 May, Europe Day.
In this tenth edition, 700 students from 22 Catalan schools (14 Ambassadors Schools and 8 Mentoring Schools) participate.
Of the centers that participate in Catalonia, 12 are from the province of Barcelona, 4 from Girona, 3 from Tarragona and 3 more from Lleida. In Spain as a whole, the programme figures for the 2024/2025 academic year are: 167 schools, 4,500 students and 600 teachers.
