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Summary

First of all welcome to the beautiful town of Lucca !

You may not know yet what you are going to do here for the follow-ing few days but we can assure you that it is going to be leg-endary... Just trust us and let yourself go! More surprises are yet to come.What we are sug-gesting you to do is to let be-

hind your shy-ness and allow yourself to get the best out of this experience.

At first EYP may seem full of odd and foreign peo-ple. The first questions that pop in your mind are: “Where am I? What am I do-

ing here? Who are all this people?”. We know that for sure: we have been there.Since you are surrounded by paparazzi make sure you always look fresh and f a s h i o n a b l e . They are al-ways hiding be-hind the corner

to capture the highlights of the session with photos, videos and articles.

Do not forget that you are al-ways under the spotlights!

Sonia, Sara & Benoit

The Editors

p.s. Good luck and stay tuned because we will be back soon!

Editorial

Editorial

Welcome letter from the presidentAnasasiia’s interview

Interviews of the Head Organisers: Amazing Elena and Valentina

Presentation of Lucca

Lucca Wall of FameLucca’s Academy Awards

Who’s who ?

Interviews of the Editors: Sonia & Benoit unre-vealed

Pocket guide for the sessionSurvival tips for the TeamBuilding

Presentation of the Chairs

2011 as a volunteer !EU News

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Anastasiia. Her name itself immediately gives an idea of firmness and sweetness together. And that is exactly how our awesome President is!

This Ukrainian blonde girl is not afraid to dare and she is the most en-thusiastic young wom-an you will ever meet! And it is an honor for us to have her here.

She has been in EYP since 2007 and she is used to come to Italy every spring, but this time “to have an of-ficial invitation and to be trusted with such re-sponsibility makes it a truly unique experience for me”, as she told me.

She defines herself “juicy, pushy and vi-brant„ and she is ex-pecting very much from this session: “a feeling of personal ful-fillment for myself and others, many sincere smiles, delicious food and glamorous eve-nings”...and we will do our best to make your wishes come true! Peo-ple think of her as some kind of “secret euro-pean agent” because of her being always abroad and in “work-related meetings„.

But non-EYPers always see us as some kind of mysterious business-men! She did not allow me to tell our readers the most embarrassing moment of her EYP life,

but we can learn from her experience: “First lesson: always pack your suitcase BEFORE the farewell party and make sure there is someone to wake you up if you have an early transfer”. She must have had a shocking experi-ence!

She thinks her role in this session (and in

her life, too) could be compared to the ones played by Kate Wins-let, an actress she re-ally likes because of her strong character, yet a feminine and very so-phisticated one. Wow, it really resembles you, Anastasiia! Good luck, charming woman, you will cer-tainly make this session rock!

Name: Anastasiia IanovytskaAge: twenty-something...From: Ukraine

By Edoardo Mastieri

Anastasiia: Kate Winslet to-be !

Dear delegates, dear starlets,

It is my honour, my priviledge and most of all my pleasure to wel-come you to the Lucca National Session of the EYP Italy as your Ses-sion President. This will be the beginning of your long journey, which I hope will be full of discoveries, new friendships and experi-ences.

When you first join your committees and meet young people from all over Italy and beyond you might feel scared. You might feel uneasy and a bit stressed. Will the other delegates like me? Will they think I’m making a fool of myself? Will they understand what

I am trying to say? But all of those worries will fade away once you re-alise that here in EYP we all come from dif-ferent countries, differ-ent backgrounds, but we are here to experi-ence the same thing - the feeling of being open, able to share our opinions without being judged, meeting new people, new cultures and trying to under-stand them. Yes, you will make fools of your-selves, however these moments will make you smile at the end of the day and at the end of the session.

The session will be pret-ty much like a movie. You can be the audi-ence, observing and watching how every-thing happens, or you

can be the actors mak-ing the session happen. I really hope you choose the second option. The only difference of this movie for you as its main stars is that there is no pre-written script. This session will be an improvisation staring you and only you will determine the outcome of this production. Will the audience like it? Will you be able to shine? Will the others

remember you?

To get positive answers to these questions I dare you to be brave, be sin-cere and be yourselves.

I dare you to DAZZLE !

Anastasiia ‘Il Regista’

Ianovytska

Welcome letter to the delegates.

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One of the session VIP is our lovely head or-ganiser Elena! Together with Valentina and the organising team, she will have to ensure that everything is going ac-cording to the plan. Al-though a lot of people

would find this role as too much of a respon-sibility, Elena consid-ers it as a great life ex-perience. What could be better than doing it with a dear friend?

She was not keen on revealing any juicy mo-ments from her past sessions, but we heard there is a story about her and a door that happened during the last year’s National Se-lection.

Natalie Portman’s way of acting reminds her of herself, which is not so hard to believe when her friends describe her as crystalline. We hope she has not too much in common with the role Natalie played in the Black Swan! Despite being a bit stressed be-cause of her recent obli-gations, she is regarded as smiling, sunny and spontaneous person. There is not any part

of an EYP session that she does not love. She thinks every single mo-ment represents an im-portant step in an over-all experience.

This is her tip to you: “Live this experience not as a competition but as a precious mo-ment. Share your ideas with someone else who lives so far from you, but who would be your special friend in the next years. EYP gives you this possibility, do not leave it pass away!“She is hoping that the team spirit among the officials will inspire all of you to work together and make the most out of this session!

Name: Elena RovaiAge: 20From: Lucca (Italy)

By Nives Kaprocki

Elena: crystalline Head Organiser.

Valentina: EYP Love at first sight !By Nives Kaprocki

Name: Valentina VitoloAge: 21From: Lucca (Italy)

Valentina is in EYP since 2006, and says it was ‘’love at first sight”! Being a head organ-iser at this session has been a great challenge for her. However, “two insane people are defi-nitely better than one”, and Elena and her are certainly up to the chal-lenge! As a vibrant and energetic person, she is

hoping to transmit the same enthusiasm to all the participants at the NSC.

Vale also describes her-self as a vocal person and she loves EuroCon-certs at International events. It is your call whether you are going to let her sing or not, but consider yourself

warned! Apart form EuroConcert, she loves every single minute of a session with all its mag-ic. She also recalls those moments that weren’t so magical, but still very memorable: before the Farewell party of the Volterra 2009 NSC Valentina got a horrific cramp and shouted so loud that she had to be accompanied to the lo-cal ER instead of going to the venue. All is well that ends well though, and it is this strange sit-uations that put a smile on your face whenever you think about EYP! After one year of devo-tion on organising the session, she expects it to be one of the most overwhelming happen-

ings of her entire life. To all of the newcom-ers: “I “I will use two words: be open! Play your role and give your best, because it is only by putting yourself to the test 100% that you will be enriched, discovering the true meaning of EYP. Put aside all your fears and insecurities and try to appreciate what lies in the exchange. Take the challenge it is issued for you guys!”

This session is her way of expressing her grati-tude towards EYP and her will to give all of you a chance to expe-rience something that will definitely change your lives.

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I really thought that writing an introduction about the town where I spent most of my life could be an easy task. I was wrong.

For example I could start describing you the fun side of Lucca, but that would leave the boring part for the end. Otherwise I can begin from the historical, ar-tistic, social, not to say boring description of my hometown followed by the interesting one.

The town was founded by the Etruscans and became a Roman colo-ny in 180 b.C. The rec-tangular grid of its his-torical centre preserves the Roman street plan and Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum, situated at the cross of the Car-do Maximus (currently known as Via Fillungo) and the Decumanus Maximus (aka Via San-ta Croce).

Lucca is renown all over the world for its pecu-liar walls that have sur-rounded the city centre for over five centuries. Moreover it is known as “the town of the hun-dred churches”; even though some of them are desecrated, most of them still host Masses. Remarkable buildings can be easily spotted as you take a walk, so that living in a beautiful town is taken for grant-ed by its inhabitants.

Recently the BBC de-clared Lucca as the best town for spring 2011: consider yourself lucky spending some days here right at the begin-ning of spring, unless rain ruins all the magic.

Now that the part con-ceived for the teachers is officially closed, we can get to what really matters to you: how do youngsters have fun around here, is there

anything that would make you want to come back? I’m afraid there isn’t much to say.

Lucca is a wonderful place for raising a child, it’s a quite small town in the sunny Tuscany, sur-rounded by hills, close to the seaside. Yet, as you turn 16 and your interests change, you realise that there aren’t many events to attend: there are few pubs and just a couple of discos. At least, we are lucky enough to reach amaz-ing cities easily: Flor-ence, Pisa, Viareggio are just at a stone’s throw.

While waiting to get started on a full immersion in EYP, here is something you should know about your hosting town.

Welcome to Lucca: an anthem to originality!By Gianmarco Battistini

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Although Academy Awards took place al-most one month ago, the winners and red carpet shining stars are still all over the media. There will be no differ-ence in this session, so be prepared for some Hollywood glamour!

The Hollywood walk of fame is getting longer and longer each year, and so are the numerals of the blockbuster mov-ies’ budgets. Sometimes

these extensive resourc-es can make dreams come true. Who would have ever imagined that a movie about a crazy ballerina could be so touching, or that a stut-tering king would make you cry?

So many different themes have already been used that it is hard to believe there are any creative ideas left. For example, the number of similar romantic

comedies released each year is ridiculously big. Someone has to win the Golden Raspberry, though. Still, more wonder-ful movies are coming out each year, and are sometimes made by studios in Europe.

So, how are we going to spread the Hollywood spirit among the session participants? The an-swer is simple: be glam-

orous, smiling and al-ways ready to be under the spotlight. You know the time and place, so get ready, the paparazzi are waiting!

Lucca Walk Of Fame.By Nives Kaprocki

The UK has got one, Rome and Venice as well, the US have both the Oscars and the Golden Globes, France has got Lyon and Cannes… why can’t we have an Academy of our own?

In Lucca there are dif-ferent movie theatres;

not that many and not even big ones, yet we manage to broadcast the best films, or at least those who are worth seeing. In this town as well there are the fanatics who, once a year, stay up till 6am just to watch the Oscar night live (sometimes even with

disastrous results).

What are we missing? Personally, I couldn’t find a proper answer to that question; hence I decided that, at least for this week, we will have our own Film Academy. Our task will be to in-troduce you the best movies of the past year, yours will be to vote for “the best of the best”.

We won’t reveal which movies we are going to discuss: we want it to be a surprise and a nice way to escape all the an-guish, the fatigue, the boredom of the day and to take refuge in a better

place, where no harm can come to you.

Get ready, as our trip will start tomorrow!

A world of magic and amazement is created for us by movie directors and cinema stars. Don’t they deserve to be rewarded for that?

Lucca’s Academy Film AwardsBy Gianmarco Battistini

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At the point of your ar-rival at this very first EYP session, you were most likely welcomed by people trying to guide you around. These persons are part of an incredibly im-portant team called the Organisers: the team on which the entire session relies on. This year’s team consists of ten very dedicated Or-ganisers, led by their two beautiful Head-Or-ganisers Ms. Valentina Vitolo and Ms. Elena Rovai.

An EYP session is the very own creation of the organisers, and throughout the ses-sion, day and night, they work harder than ever, making sure that everything is running smoothly. That is why you will not see them that much, but if you get the pleasure to do so, be sure to be nice to them.

The second group in

this session consists on the Media Team. Their main goal is to set and contribute to a positive atmosphere throughout the session, whilst also producing the session magazine.

You may get to see your journalists quite often, whether they are taking pictures of you embar-rassing yourselves dur-ing team-building or goofing around during coffee-breaks and even-ing activities. Everyday

you will get the chance to enjoy the fruit of their work.

Last, but absolutely not least, we have the Chair’s Team. This fi-nal team is the one that you will interact with the most during the session. At this session, each committee has the pleasure of having two wonderful chair-persons. They will help you to get to know your fellow delegates during team-

building, and guide you through committee work. They are all great sourc-es of knowledge - so be sure to make to most out of it.

The three teams togeth-er are known as the Of-ficials. They count ex-perienced EYPers from all over Europe, each adding his very own personality and culture to the session.

So, why have they chose to come to Lucca? The answer is easy: they all love meeting new people and everything EYP has to offer.

Now, they want to give you the chance to feel the same way by wel-coming you to your first EYP session.

Unfamiliar people running around doing different things leads us to one question: “who are they?”.

By Edoardo MestieriWho’s doing what?

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Benoit comes from the “Great Empire of Britta-ny„ (France), as he says, and he really likes his role in this session! He is one of the two Edi-tors of this newspaper and he is really excited about that because he can mix up “the creativ-ity of a journalist and

the supervising skills of a chairperson”. His aim is to find enough time to speak with delegates, so be ready to chat with him.

Being in EYP since 2006, he could be con-sidered a skillful refer-ring point for all of us.

He decided to come here mainly because he loves pasta and cof-fee! But don’t ask him, he would say he was missing our sun and warmth.

As for many of you this is going to be your very first session we would like to share with you an experience from his first session: because of some “difficulties„ in speaking English, Be-noit told us that “when I took the speech in the middle of the General Assembly of an Inter-national Session for the first time, I had 3 Points of Privilege rising in

the air after 30 seconds, meaning basically that no one was able to un-derstand me. When I repeated my discourse for the second time, there were 5 of them. That was really dread-ful. The moral is, don’t skip your English les-sons. Ever.”. He is right: soon you will see that English is the best way to communicate espe-cially when you have foreign people in front of you. But do not wor-ry: if you still do not like English very much, use this session to improve your language skills and to meet people like our great, cheeky Benoit!

Name: Benoit ViaultAge: 21From: Rennes (France)

By Edoardo Mestieri

Benoit: Sorry, he’s French...

Sonia, for everyone who does not know her yet, comes from Tunis, lives in Milan and is one of the two Editors of the session.

She is taking care of the newspaper and of all the journalists, who

would be totally lost without her! She does not want to reveal her age, but she ensures she’s over 18 …

Sonia always wanted to be an editress, maybe since her first session, almost 4 years ago, right

here in Lucca! Going back to the crime scene might be slightly touch-ing: she told us she has great memories from her first session!

As she speaks a myriad of languages and does not sleep enough to re-store her brain, she can seem quite crazy the very first time you meet her but, as soon as you talk to her you will un-derstand she is smart, powerful and very fun-ny!

An advice from her to all of you new EYPers: ”I suggest you making

the best of every mo-ment of the Session and keep all the news-papers, because when you’ll be home you will want to look back and remember the amazing times you had in Lucca. And do not forget to keep in touch with your new friends!”.

She is terrifically right! It’s because of friends like her that you will not be able to quit the awesome experience of EYP!

Name: Sonia TrabelsiAge: undefined (more than 18!)From: Milan (Italy), and Brussels as well.

Sonia: travelling editress.By Edoardo Mestieri

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Shortly after you have had an amazing lunch you will be transferred to Vallisneri, which is the venue where you will engage in your first EYP-activity: Team-building.

This is the part you will be most surprised by, since you will learn that its contents are not what first would come to your mind when you hear the words Euro-pean Youth Parliament.

The purpose of hav-ing teambuilding is to break the ice and to get to know the rest of your committee. Your desig-nated chairpersons will

help you to get started and then guide your through the rest of the afternoon. Here are some does and don’ts for you to make the most of your first EYP-teambuilding experi-ence:

1.Engage in the activi-ties which your chair-persons presents in an open-minded way: do not judge the games before you have played them;

2.Do not hold back and make a half-hearted ef-fort: break away from your normal self and feel free to act as you feel;

3.Do not be afraid to embarrass yourself: you will all make fool out of yourselves and together you will learn that it will serve a higher purpose.

A successful teambuild-ing will not only result in you getting to know each other but you will learn how to work and function as a group,

which will be useful the following days when you will take on Com-mittee-Work.

Playing games you would never even think twice about not to play? Oscar Duse knows the feeling and wants to share some advice in order for you to ease in the transition.

Let me see your funky chicken.By Oscar Duse

In these days you will get involved in some activities that will help you becoming more confident with your language skills and making you learn the procedures of the Gen-eral Assembly, every-thing combined with games and debates.

The first activity is called Teambuilding. During this part of the session each one of you will be in a group with other 11 delegates from different schools. Every group will be guided by two Chair-persons who will lead you through a new path to get more comfortable with the activities of the following days.

The goal is to create groups of delegates who can debate and cooper-ate.

The next activity is Committee Work: it’s time to set in motion your brain and start dealing with a chosen subject in order to get ready to think as a real MEP!

It won’t be necessary to write a resolution, but keep in mind that the topic will be discussed during the Assembly.And finally, the General Assembly!

Every delegation repre-sents a Committee, and you will have to debate, either in English or

French, your resolution.Every resolution tackles a different subject, so you should be informed about every topic to take an active part in the discussion.

The winning delegation will have the chance to participate to an Inter-national Session organ-

ised by EYP/SF during the following year. The second school classified will take part in an In-ternational Forum.

A little pocket-guide for the Session!By Andrea Montanari

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ENVIName: Carolina Coro-na (aka CC) She was born in a mul-ticultural city, Bologna. Her childhood is a great indicator why she is such a good EYPer, as she lived in 4 countries before settling in Bolo-gna where she maked her first contacts with EYP. She is also one of our precious VPs.

Name: Tiago Pereira (aka Direito, right in Portuguese)All the way from Portu-gal, Tiago, who has an artist spirit, is going to be chairing ENVI with Carolina. Delegates be careful, observe him very carefully because he has a twin brother.

EMPLName: Elisa Martinelli (aka Eli)She was born in a small town (her description) called Lucca. The dele-gates of EMPL, I have a suggestion for you, just make her laugh and sit back. Don’t be afraid of her, she can be very noisy when laughing.

Name: Besard Hoxha (aka Bes)He comes from Alba-nia and is here to vice-preside this Selection. Besard is a very smart and loves travelling. If you want to have a chat with him you will have no problems as he is an extroverted character.

CULT Name: Sebastiano Cos-tantino Loukas (aka Seba)Half Greek, half Ital-ian he is proud of his hometowns. He isn’t a bear neither a 30 year old man; he just doesn’t like shaving at all.

Name:   Lavrentia Christodoulou (aka Lav)She is a merry Greek lady who loves physics especially the nuclear one.

AFET 2Name: Andrea Reversi (aka Reve)He is from Milan and he likes to define him-self as “always-late-An-drea” and you can eas-ily guess why. He loves hunting during his free time and is really fond of politics.

Name: Kerstin Eckart (aka Chairstin)Typical German you can say who drinks beer but she proves us wrong with her high gastro-nomically knowledge she knows what a good meal or wine is.

DROIName: Robin Roy Fon-da (aka Roger, Roberto or Roy)How many Indian friends do you have? Well you are going to have at least one.Roy, a law student, will be chairing the committee on Human Rights.

Name: Valeria Chered-nichenko (aka Vale)Travelling, I guess is the key to describe what she is and what she does. She love Spain (Spanish language, food, people, music, everything).She is remarkable with her curly curly hair.

By Erke Can Tellal

THE MAGNIFICENT CHAIRS

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By Erke Can Tellal

OF LUCCA 2011

AFET 1Name: Chiara Rezzoa-gli (aka Chiari)Do you need cookies or muffins? This is the right chairperson to ask for a cookie. She is the magical girl that every-boy can imagine.

Name: Nemanja Predo-jevic (no nickname :( )The delegates of Afet 1 are very lucky to have such a compatible chair famous for his ponc-tuality. Teambuilding with him is going to be your best EYP memory of your life.

ITREName: Eugenio di Ago-sta (aka EU)This curly Italian chair just loves everything about LAW.I suggest you to get along with him or….

Name: Camille Comen-cini (aka Pomme)Camille is half italian and half french, loves travelling to go and meet her friends. But only when her studies allow her to have some free time.

LIBE 2Name: Elena Tripaldi (aka Tippy)She isn’t an ordinary EYPer, an Italian phi-losopher who doesn’t know bad words at all. With her perfect Up-per Manchester, North-ern British and Italian mixed accent she’ll be chairing the committee on human rights 2.

Name: Aleksandros Politis (aka Alex the Cudler)This Greek Law Con-sulter candidate has always been dreaming for a cruise in Oceania islands, but he will soon understand how Lucca is better than a bunch of islands. He’ll be chairing with Elena.

LIBE 1Name: Giulia Pace (aka J.P.)If you ask her where she comes from she can-not answer properly mumbling something like “mmm...rome...m m m . . . l o n d o n . . .mmm... I don’t know”. Careful, her sense of day and night is a bit particular.

Name: Beatrice Costag-liola di Mignovillo (aka Bea)Don’t think she is shouting at you, this is just the way she speaks. Mind her fabulous sur-name (I don’t know what does it means but it looks like she has the noble blood in her veins)...

FEMMName: Afrola Plaku (aka Fifi)Her name may sound unfamiliar to you but don’t worry: it exists. In Albania. She currently lives in Milan where she is studying Economics in one of the most pres-tigious Italian Universi-ties. Go and talk to her: fun will be guaranteed!

Name: Laurens Kraima (aka the Voice)He is a one man orches-tra, with his marvel-lous deep voice he can pop up from anywhere. This FEMM chair just turned 20 on the 19th March.

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Single European Sky within reachThe Hungarian Presidency handles the creation of a Single European Sky; the re-shaping of air traffic control is a priority. Pál Völner, Minister of State for Infrastructure of the Ministry of National Development, stressed this at a conference in Budapest, on March 3rd 2011. Air traffic is indeed one of the most dynamically evolving branches of transport in the European Union and the system of air traffic control in the EU is less and less capa-ble of handling the steady increase of traffic

A quick look to what’s happening in the EU right now.By Edoardo Mestieri

2011, Europe is a volunteer!By Andrea Montanari

The 8th of July 2010 the European Parliament approved with 416 votes in favour to declare 2011 “the year of the voluntary work”.

At the beginning, the European Volunteer Centre (EVC) launched the first discussion, and then they requested the European Parliament to point out that 3 people out of 10 in the EU are mixed up with this activity: therefore 100 millions of people are

currently working as volunteers! Considering all the activities promoted in Europe, why chosing volunteering?Basically, volunteer-ing has been defined as an action capable of realizing the values and the goals of the EU; it

contributes to improve in a significant way the european society; and it helps the economical growth creating 5% of the GDP.Volunteers are the living witnesses that everyday it is possible to pull down social, cultural, and religious barriers.If 3 people out of 10 are volunteers, it means that 7 people have never got engaged. People are usually in-fluenced by stereotypes and cannot imagine how volontary work can be important and necessary.

In 2011 we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International year of volunteering: this could become a great chance to persuade the governments to destroy these stereotypes and supporting the involved associations.

Europe is a mix of cultures, religions and populations: volunteer-ing fits perfectly as a connection between people who can create a common identity all together: Europe!

Europe 2020The ten-year Lisbon Strategy aiming at the devel-opment of European Union competitiveness came to an end in 2010, just at the time of the global fi-nancial and economic crisis. The Member States adopted the new Europe 2020 Strategy, which sets five headline targets: increasing employment; im-proving the conditions for research and develop-ment; reducing greenhouse gas emission by 20%, increasing renewable energies and energy efficien-cy by 20%; improving the level of education; pro-moting social inclusion.