Every April, more than 160 college and university students meet to decide the future of the European Union (EU). Playing the roles of prime ministers and presidents, ambassadors and commissioners, ministers and diplomats,they spend three days debating policy, resolving disputes, building compromises, and charting the course of European integration. The Midwest Model European Union (MMEU) is one of only a half dozen events of its kind in the United States.
Created in 1993 by Prof. John McCormick of the Department of Political Science at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), the MMEU is the second oldest intercollegiate simulation of the EU in North America. Originally hosted by IUPUI, it was moved to the Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) campus in the spring of 2014.
Colleges send delegations of 7 members each, representing the 28 EU member states. Over a period of 48 hours, they meet in formal and informal sessions as the European Council, the European Commission, and several different councils of ministers.
From Thursday afternoon through Saturday afternoon, students introduce, discuss, and reach decisions on EU policy. National leaders provide overall direction, ministers huddle to work out the details of policy, commissioners and their directors-general try to give new direction to foreign and security policy, the single market, eastward enlargement, and the development of the euro, and emergency joint meetings are held to break impasses.
Organization for EU-Midwest begins in January each year, when invitations are emailed to faculty advisers, and students begin forming delegations. There is a small participation fee of $175 per delegation, and the event is held at the Indiana University Memorial Union (IMU) from April 2-4. Blocks of rooms have been reserved at the IMU Biddle Hotel and the Hyatt Place Hotel in downtown Bloomington. Rooms are available for reduced rates, however it is up to individual universities to make reservations and payment arrangements for these rooms while they are available.
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