A Meeting of Young Slovenians in Parliament

On Wednesday, 13th April 2005, 120 primary and secondary school students aged 14-18 along with their mentors met in The Slovenian Parliament in Ljubljana to discuss and debate about the European Union and in particular about the European Constitution.

The meeting was hosted by Mr. Anton Kokalj, Head of the Board of Foregin Affairs. There were two other guests present, dr. France Cukjati, president of the Slovenian Assembly and His Excellency Mr. Fouere, Head of The Presidency of the European Commission in Slovenia. Dr. Cukjati was too busy to stay for the whole meeting. He welcomed us and then left to attend to his other duties. Mr. Fouere welcomed us in Slovenian even though he is Irish.

Eleven students and pupils presented their opinions on various topics and themes, such as Citizenship, the European Constitution and Slovenia, Ecology; Young people in Europe and their education in other European countries; Equality in all countries of the EU. The Representative from our school was Aljaž Šemrov. He talked about the problems of ethnic minorities in EU and in Slovenia. He remined us about these problems in everyday life and about discrimination. We have to respect everybody irrespective of their religion or rase.

We then had a break of ten minutes during which time reporters took a photo of all the participants. After the break the meeting continued. Some students asked more questions about respecting the European Constitution. Mr. Fouere was very open with us and gave us good advice about the future of Slovenia in the EU. After the meeting we had a short guided tour of the Parliament building. The whole meeting was televized. The students were very happy to have had the opportunity to take part in such an important meeting. They learned a lot of new things and began to feel that they really are becoming a part of a larger family, Europe.

prepared by:
Ines Čeligoj and Monika Bergoč 8.b