Burak Altuk, rekomendowany przez swego opiekuna - dr. Benona Gazińskiego, jako jedyny z Polski i Turcji uczestniczył w sierpniu w młodzieżowej Letniej Szkole im. Jean Monneta: „Traktat rzymski a przyszłość Unii Europejskiej”. Burak jest studentem Kirikkale University (Turcja), ale już dwukrotnie odwiedził nasz Uniwersytet. W roku akademickim 2015/2016 odbył semestralne studia w ramach programu ERASMUS, natomiast latem tego roku odbył – w ramach tego samego programu – dwumiesięczną praktykę w Instytucie Nauk Politycznych na Wydziale Nauk Społecznych. Poniżej sprawozdanie z Letniej Szkoły w Paryżu.

Participant’s Report

Jean Monnet Summer School: The Treaty of Rome and the Future of the European Union

(Paris, 22nd August-25th August 2017)

It has been the first and the best but not the least experience for me, exhausting but fun and educative. For many times, I had the chance to spend my time with students all over the Europe but Jean Monnet Summer School experience was different from Erasmus and other student exchange programs. At first I had no idea about Jean Monnet summer school. Thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Benon Gaziński, I exactly know what it is.

The program itself offers you a great opportunity that you can’t find everywhere. I have not been sure about going to Paris for an event with 100 Euro payment but luckily I participated. This 100 Euro includes accomodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, transportation in Paris and many other things. I noticed that I am the only one participant, representing the two countries – Poland and Turkey. I would like to start with the programme itself and how it worked.

(22nd August) Every participant had to arrive to the Hotel FIAP Jean Monnet which is located in the centre of Paris. Coming there, I met – during the welcome coffee – other participants from France, Spain, Germany, Austria and United Kingdom and trainers from Poland (Evens Foundation), European Youth Parliament, Les Jeunes Européens and staff members of the Jean Monnet Association. After that, trainers talked about their goals during this Summer School. When they finished, we played a game called “Get to know each other”. In this game, you have one partner to talk about your personal affairs and that person will write it on a big paper. In that way, we tried to create social media page on the paper. That was actually a workshop but it seemed like a game to me. You must listen your partner carefully and make notes because you will speak about them and they will speak about you. So in this way, we knew each other well. After this workshop, we had a dinner in Paris in a luxury restaurant. Director of the Jean Monnet Association, Philippe Le Guen was among us. So, we have another good occassion to talk and to know more about each other. And we did’t even pay for the dinner as it was included in this 100 Euro of the participant’s fee. Sleeping well was the key point to be fresh during the next day as we faced a very strict and tight schedule.

(23th August) After breakfast, we arrived to the Jean Monnet house, located outside Paris. Jean Monnet staff was with us all the time and Mr. Le Guen explained us the background of the European Union, Jean Monnet’s life and his works. Before the event, It seemed to me that I know a lot about Jean Monnet but after visiting his house I realised that I didn’t know so much. There I learned how the European Union has been gradually built. Jean Monnet had no formal diploma from schools and yet he became the “Father of Europe”. For Jean Monnet if there is a problem, he must solve it in this or in other way, he can’t affort to fail. To do this, he worked with his friends all day and let them sleep in his couch. This is an argument that everything is possible if we work hard enough. In the house, everything has remained unchanged and authentic. After sightseeing, we had a plenary session: “The 60th anniversary of the treaty of Rome – Past and future” and discussed about Treaty of Rome. Then, we had Workshop with Polish trainers from Evens Foundation. They asked us to watch the movie “I am Europe” before the workshop. All day we worked with groups to find our ID. We talked about values that mean most to us and we talked about them in front of the whole group. It was weird but at the end we saw that we share nearly same values except one German guy. Value that mean most to him was life in comfort, while for the majority of us, key values were freedom or friendship. We worked in sub-groups on some imaginary pictures to identify Europe and that was the best part of this workshop. Everybody had fun. After that we had dinner in the hotel and went out together to see the city.

(24th August) We came back to Jean Monnet house for simulation game about active citizenship with European Youth Parliament. After finishing, there was an another simulation game waiting for us and that was a huge one. We worked as two groups to elaborate a law to solve Europe’s problems. Workshop was about which group could propose the most concrete legislation. So, we spend whole day working together about problems and how to fix them and to find a good solutions. We prepared defense and attack speech for our propositions. Because at the end of the simulation, in the conclusion we all gathered as an Assembly to vote for this two propositions and it felt like we’re in the Assembly of Europe. At the end of the day finally propositions of both group were accepted and Association Jean Monnet wanted to save these propositions. After simulation we had dinner and then a party in the house of Jean Monnet. While, among others, we were drinking Jean Monnet cognac, we introduced our countries. That was my favourite part of the programme. I represented two countries, Poland and Turkey, and people were listening carefully. Also this party was a great thanks to the staff.

(25th August) After breakfast, we arrived to the European Comission Representation in France. There we met Gaetane Ricard-Nihoul, Deputy Head of the Representation of the European Comission in France. She talked a bit about the Union and Union’s future plans and about her job. After that, she asked us to read the White Paper on the future of Europe. Then, she had represented the White Paper and we were divided into three groups to work on three different topics for 30 minutes. Each group worked on all of the topics in one and half hour. First, we worked as a group about Social Dimension and then about European Defence and then Economic and Monetary Union. As a group, we made thirty concrete proposition and as "the Assembly" we voted for it. At the end we had a "constitution" of different ideas and she proposed us to send this document to the European Comission. After that, we had lunch and sightseeing tour around Paris, a boat tour and, again we didn’t have to pay for it.

As a conclusion, I am deeply convicted that we need more activities like Jean Monnet Summer School or other events like Erasmus. Thus we can get to know better each other and become more united. I am happy to participate in this event, the Jean Monnet Summer School. Now, I have many friends all over Europe and we are still in touch even with the staff of Jean Monnet Association. In Jean Monnet House people were kind and open minded, I didn’t get bored or spend my time for nothing, just contrary I felt very lucky to participate, learn many new things and meet with amazing people.

Burak Altuk

the Kırıkkale University/the UWM Olsztyn

European Comission in Paris, France, 25th August 2017, Workshop (Burak – standing, the first person, right)