Presidents' Welcome Letter

Honourable Delegates,
venerable Committee Presidents and
distinguished Student Media Officers,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the 14^th national session of the Model European Parliament. We feel honoured to be hosting this session in Vorarlberg from

22^nd to 25^th January 2015.

This session will be a unique opportunity for you to make your voice heard, to be a representative of your province, to discuss political questions that affect millions of people throughout the European Union and the chance to learn something about yourselves. We don’t know what this “something” will be: You may discover that you are good at negotiating or working in teams. You may also learn how to find a compromise with people you don’t share the same opinion with. Maybe you will find out that there is no more exciting moment than holding a speech in a hall full of attentive listeners? Maybe you’ll decide that you would like to dedicate your life to working towards a brighter and better future for the EU? We don’t know. What we do know is that if you truly open your heart and mind to this unforgettable experience, you will make this weekend and this session will in return change the very way you look at the world. Believe in yourself, work even harder and make friendships for years to come.

Bregenz and Dornbirn are our two capitals, one is home toVorarlberg’s administrationand government with its impressive art and culture events on Lake Constance the other is our commercial and industrial centre, and the
most populated city in Vorarlberg situated in the Rhein valley. To get you better acquainted with Vorarlberg and its landmark cities we have prepared a programme featuring the town halls ofBregenz and Dornbirn and our province parliament, das Landhaus where the GA will be held.

We have invited interesting speakers from different tiers of public life: the Speaker of the Vorarlberg Landtag Mag. Sonderegger, former EU parliamentarian Mag. Herbert Bösch, DI Markus Linhart, Town Mayor of Bregenz and Dipl.-Vw. Andrea Kaufmann Town Mayor of Dornbirn, and Dr. Wolfgang Wolte, ambassador to Brussels leading up to Austria’s accession to the European Union twenty years ago. The committee meetings will be held at the two participating schools: BG Bregenz /Blumenstraße and the BORG Schoren-Dornbirn. You will experience how the decision – making process of the European Parliament works. We will have team building activities so you can get to know each other better before we will all come together to enjoy “Käsknöpfle” at the famous “Gasthaus Pfänderdohle”.

Keep one very important thing in mind: the essential part of the Model European Parliament is you, the participant. You will meet like-minded ordifferent- minded youngsters from all over Austria and work together on a resolution trying to find common ground on sensitive issues in your committees. Your success will rely on your teamwork trying to pass your resolution in the General Assembly. We wish you good luck. How successful this weekend is for you personally will depend on you. Active participation might involve things you have never done before, so you should be willing to put an effort into your preparation first.
Be confident and you will see that there is nothing to stopyou. We are really looking forward to an interesting
and productive session.

Your Presidents,

Gallus Vögel (BG Blumenstraße)

Michael Hinteregger (BG Blumenstraße)

Kay Kaufmann (Theresianische Akademie Wien)

Maria Kupriyanova (Theresianische Akademie Wien)