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Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

With slow progress in achieving gender parity across Europe in both political positions and the private sector, what is the role of women in perpetuating inequality in the workplace? To what extent should the EU and Member States take more action in order to unlock the full potential of Europe’s female labour force?

Distinguished delegates of the Committee on Women´s Rights and Gender Equality,

Let us first congratulate you on being chosen to represent your federal state in the national MEP session in January 2016. My name is Catherina Schwaiger and I will be your Committee President during the National MEP session in Klosterneuburg.

It will be the task of Emilie Berger (Co CP) Maximilian Knaser (CP Sec.) and me to chair the Committee Meetings and to help you drafting the resolution. In addition, two CIEs (Committee Issue Experts) (Natalie Komissarova, Antonia Frey) who will provide background information on our topic, will support you.

A short overview on the procedure of the Model European Parliament for all of you who have never taken part in an MEP session: (see also http://www.mepeurope.eu/model-european-parliament-norwich-2013/)

During the Committee Meetings, we are going to work on the so-called introductive clauses (IC´s) and the operative clauses (OC´s). By formulating IC´s, we will outline and point out the actual problems of our topic. Afterwards, we will have to set up an approach to solving these problems in terms of writing down OC´s. Since the OC´s can be considered as the most important part of the resolution and the overall time available for the Committee Meetings is little, we should not spend too much time on the IC´s. I therefore advise you all to prepare and to sum up the problems of our topic in advance in order to proceed quickly and more effectively. After having finished the resolution itself, we will choose members of the committee to deliver several speeches in the General Assembly, such as the opening speech, the speech against the amendment and the speech in favour of the resolution. But you will certainly get familiar with how the Model European Parliament works very soon.

At this point we would like to draw your attention to the importance of the preparation work, which can be considered as the foundation of our meetings.Without any previous knowledge, you will not be able to actively take part in the discussions. Therefore, we would like you to write a summary on our topic by January 10^th and send it to us via email. Included should be a description of the current situation for women as well as possible solutions for occurring issues. Also, try to answer the given question of our committee. (see below) Please take this work seriously, since it will also have an impact on your evaluations. The more prepared you are, the more likely it is to fulfil our expectations. We want you to have a broad knowledge of the topic, as well as to participate in the discussions and do the given homework, thus achieving a solid resolution.

As your Committee President, together with my Co CP and CP Sec I will be chairing our discussions and direct you towards drafting a resolution. We will show you how it is done but cannot monitor your content input. Therefore it is necessary for all of you to do some preparation using the links and tips provided below. As you will all maybe be interested in representing Austria in the upcoming MEP sessions in Budapest, Sofia and Copenhagen we will be evaluating and grading your performance in the committee as well as in the General Assembly.

In order to make things easier for you, we have attached a couple of links which can help you with your research. You should inform yourself about current statistics, problems, causes and effects of youth unemployment and an aging society.

Three things to keep in mind:

The MEP works under the assumption of an unlimited budget, thus financial issues should not be taken into consideration.
The MEP attempts to remain politically independent as an institution. Hence, political campaigns should not be part of your preparation.
Bear in mind that, if you want to make arguments or claims, you need proof and evidence. While researching you should not forget that some sources are more credible than others.

In order to simplify the communication between all of us, please also send us your phone numbers and download the App WhatsApp in case you are not already using it, as we would like to establish a group chat in the near future.

We wish you all the best for your preparation and are already looking forward to working with you.

Please do not hesitate to contact us on case of any questions!

Best regards,

Catherina Schwaiger

Contact:

catherina.schwaiger@gmx.at
emmiberger@hotmail.com
maximilian.knaser@chello.at
nathalie.komissarova@gmail.com – (CIE)
mimzi@gmx.at – (CIE)