Letter from the presidents

Venerable Committee Chairs, Honourable Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to all of you here in Graz; we’ve been looking forward to seeing you for so long; the last in person session taking place in Burgenland in February 2022. We are proud to have kept the MEP momentum going also on a national level with two truly remarkable and memorable online conferences in Klagenfurt and Wels.

We are back and delighted it is Graz. We’re really glad the winter weather hasn’t stopped anyone of you from taking extensive, probably exhausting journeys upon yourselves to be here.

You’ve come from all parts of Austria to become a part of Europe – and maybe Graz will turn out just as the perfect place to begin this new and exciting journey called Europe. 

As has been a tradition these past five years, we would also like to welcome a German delegation as we also look forward to joining their session in Berlin in March. And a novelty, we are also reaching out to a delegation of Ukrainian students who will be joining our session. Their homeland became a recent EU candidate country so are interested in gaining an operative insight into the workings of European integration.

Twenty years ago, Graz was the cultural capital of Europe, and still two decades later one can feel some of the European spirit in the streets, as no citizen will ever forget this time. So, we hope you, too, will be able to take in some of this feeling this weekend, and let it influence not only your work in the committees, but also the social ties you will make.

During the last few weeks, you were all quite busy, but nevertheless you found time to prepare yourself for this parliamentary session. You have gained a lot of insight already from working through some of the preparation links provided by the team of committee chairs, but now it is about time for the meeting to begin and for you to exchange views and find consensual solutions to four burning European issues with your fellow delegates in the committees. 

You are going to be working in the political heart of the city and the federal state of Styria: the Burg, seat of the Styrian government, the Town Hall and the Steirische Landtag, the historic parliament of the province; we have invited a string of interesting speakers and well-known local, national and European politicians.

Above all though meeting, working and socialising with new people we are convinced you will make a lot of friends, maybe for a lifetime. We hope you will enjoy this national session in Graz and stay with the Model European Parliament for a while longer to experience the thrill of euroregional and international MEP meetings, just as we did. It’s really worth it! 

Welcome to the Green Heart of Austria welcome to 22 nMEP Graz 23.

Candice Felderer (Theresianische Akademie Wien), Moritz Höfler (HAK1 Klagenfurt)

Anastasia Povolotskaya (Theresianische Akademie Wien), Jana Trattner (WORG Franziskanerinnen Wels)

Presidents of the National Model European Parliament Austria Graz 2023