EU crisis management simulation by students of EU International Relations and Diplomacy programme

From 5 to 9 February 2018, the students of the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies programme at the College of Europe, Bruges campus, embarked upon tense negotiations to find a response to two hypothetical crisis situations at Europe’s borders to the East and to the South. During an entire week, the students transformed into staffers at the European External Action Service and the European Commission, Working Group experts, Ambassadors to the Political and Security Committee and Foreign Ministers from the EU member states, as well as critical journalists. The students discussed varying topics, ranging from supporting civil society actors and evacuating EU citizens to using trade instruments in order to bring the parties back to the negotiation table. The teams drafted member state position briefs, option papers, Council Decisions and Conclusions and press releases. Moreover, the students were active on a special ‘Tuiter’ platform created for the simulation.

The negotiations, under the auspices of the High Representative and her team, were tough as every country tried to promote its own objectives. Nevertheless, the hushed conversations in the corridors, the long discussions in the official meetings and the never-ending debates over lunch culminated in an emergency Foreign Affairs Council that finally agreed on a common EU response to the two crises. The concrete response included contingency plans to evacuate EU citizens from the crisis country, allocating additional funding through the European Neighbourhood Instrument and increasing humanitarian assistance. As for the second conflict, the Council reiterated its support for the Minsk Group and called upon the Commission to create an Emergency Trust Fund. 

This simulation game is an integral part of the study programme. Directed by an negotiation expert, Alejandro RIBÓ LABASTIDA, and a political advisor from the EEAS, Quentin WEILER, it offers a realistic experience of EU crisis management by immersing students in a compact, high-pace exercise which allows them to apply and refine their knowledge on EU foreign policy and their bargaining skills acquired in the courses they followed in the first semester. 

 

 

IRD Simulation game.February 2018