Final Day Reflections

Today WE focus on the overall reflections of the trip as we make haste back to Aberystwyth. There is no doubt thatwe have learnt many things on the European Union and its internal organs. We have also learnt about how different European institutions protect the human rights.

The trip started with our visit to Luxembourg, a country with very few people but much wealth. Particular highlights in cluded the palace of the Grand Duke and, especially, THE European Court of Justice and the European Investment Bank. On a European level, Luxembourg plays an important role as the judicial centre of the EU.

The undoubted highlight of the trip was Wednesday 8^th June when we visited the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. In the European Parliament we were given a detailed powerpoint presentation by a Maltese visitor’s officer. The presentation concerned the basic functions of the parliament, and also addressed political issues arising from its operations, such as the so-called democratic deficit.  Following on to this we met three Welsh MEPs, including Dr Kay Swinbourne herself (a native of Aberystwyth), Gill Evans (an Aberystwyth graduate) and Nick Vaughan. They have answered our questions regarding day to day work, their roles in the parliament, constituency work and the transparency in their work.  Following on from this, we were fortunate enough to be able to sit on a plenary session of the Parliament during a vote on a parliamentary report.

The afternoon (apart from making an-update on our blog at lunch-time) saw a visit to the European Court of Human Rights where we were given a presentation and a questions and answers session by         by a lawyer at the Council of Europe, learning about the work, decisions and appointments of judges directly in the main court room where some were fortunate enough to sit in judges’ chairs.

Following this, we have returned back to the European Parliament, where we were greeted by Dr Swinbourne and a group of other MEPs, assistants and advisers, few of whom were former Aberystwyth graduates all of whom were not only happy to tell us about their memories about the University, but also about their career paths, but also about their areas of interest, for example, the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

On Thursday and Friday, during our return from Strasbourg we were able to reflect upon all our experience as we passed beautiful green scenery of France. The ancient French city of Reims provided the inspiration for this: its beautiful cathedral where Clovis, the first king of the Franks was baptised, and where foundation stones were laid for the empire of Charlemagne -   empire of whom many European idealists still dream about as true European.

But the modern Europe is different: after centuries of conflict, ideological divisions and current economic problems, European states are still willing to overcome old problems and work together to create a more dynamic and confident Europe for the future. That the Lisbon Treaty further strengthened the European Council shows that states themselves are at the heart of this new drive to keep Europe together, and ensure its survival as an area of freedom and peace.

But perhaps most importantly, many of us came to appreciate the importance of the Schengen area – the European free-travel zone that that breaks down old barriers and brings together people, even yesterday’s enemies. Perhaps this is what Europe is truly about. As Jean Monet famously said: We are not building a coalition of states, we are uniting people’.