In June 2024, 450 million people in the 27 states of the European Union were called upon to vote for the new European Parliament, one of the three essential bodies in European Law making. Those laws penetrate deeply into the daily lives of the populations, but still, for many, the process by which they are created is a black box. GPC Student Sebastian Segnitzer had the unique opportunity to gain insights into this black box while participating in ConSIMium – a Council simulation organized by the European Council and the Council of the European Union in Brussels.
For two days, delegations from all 27 member states met in Brussels and negotiated fictive laws about AI and Cybersecurity. Each delegation had a head of state, a minister, an ambassador, two technical experts, and a journalist. In the rooms of the European Council – where normally the real heads of state meet – the participants learned in particular how the Council of the European Union works. A proposal sent by the European Commission was first discussed by the national experts, whose task it is, in reality, to examine the law against national interests and negotiate sentences into the last detail. To prepare for this task, the Finnish students met with Tuomas Kaivola, the Finnish national expert negotiating the AI act released a few months ago.
After the national experts had discussed the acts, a COREPER (committee of permanent representatives) meeting of the 27 ambassadors took place. Here, the laws were negotiated again on a more political level. The ambassadors tried to form alliances with other countries to adopt some elements of the law in favor of the national positions. In the last step, the minister met to approve the adopted law and sent it back to the European parliament.
During the simulation, several other activities took place in Brussels besides the formal introduction to the law-making process. The Finnish delegation met Markku Keinänen, the Head of the Mission of the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU. The students had the opportunity to ask him and his team about exclusive background stories and, in general, career opportunities in Brussels. Also, there were workshops about EU career opportunities and how to apply for them. HR employees gave their insights about "do's and don'ts" to hand in a successful application for a traineeship or a permanent job. Also, preparation workshops before the simulation took place, in which the processes of the EU were explained in detail.
To participate in the simulation, Sebastian had to submit a formal application with a motivation letter and academic transcript to a call announced in October. He was selected in a competitive process from the pool of applicants by a Faculty of Social Sciences committee to represent the University of Helsinki at the EU Simulation Game. Looking back on his experience Sebastian observed, "Not only have I met interesting people from all over Europe, but I also deepened my understanding of EU processes and discovered the EU as an interesting place to work in the future."