MUN vs EYP! Written by Melisa DERTLİ

MUN vs EYP! Written by Melisa DERTLİ

Hello Fellow MUN’ers,

For this month’s topic, I have chosen to make a comparison between EYP and MUN to help you understand the differences and similarities between them and which one is a perfect fit for you. EYP stands for European Youth Parliament. Just like MUN in which we simulate United Nations, we simulate European Parliament. To be able to attend to EYP, you need to first get selected at a “National Selection Conference (NSC)”. This year I was able to attend the 22nd Session of NSC which was held at Metu College. It was a very enlightening experience for me so I decided to share it with you. Let’s get started!

Both in EYP and in MUN, meeting other people from different backgrounds is essential. You get to talk with many people and it is for sure one of the most important aspects of these conferences. The small difference is, in MUN, it is more local. You, most of the time, meet people from your own country just from different cities. This is very important as you get to see faces of people from all parts of your country but in EYP, since it is a more global conference, you meet people from a larger, global scale. So it is not just from your own country but from the entire world. It gives you a better understanding of the cultures and ethnicities aside from your own.

Debating is yet another important part of them. Talking about world’s current problems and trying to find efficient solutions to them is why we attend these conferences in the first place. In that sense, there is no difference between them. Both of them care so much about you, your opinions and how you put them into words and how you convey your ideas to others. However, despite these similarities, the official procedure is where EYP differentiates from MUN. In MUN, we are representing a country, in a committee. These committees, especially GA ones, usually consist of 35-40 people and all delegates have a country to represent, politics to follow. You have to act within the policies of your country, your personal opinions do not matter as much as the official protocol of that state.

In EYP, you are representing yourself. In a committee, which consists of 10 to 15 people, everyone speaks for themselves, not for a country. This gives you a little more freedom to express yourself better. You don’t have an administration to follow. You state your own mind, not a policy or strategy. With this being said, the language is pretty different too. You need to speak more formally, with more complicated words, with more seriousness in MUN but in EYP you don’t speak formally. You speak casually as if you are having a conversation with your friend. Formality is not required and actually is not expected. You need to get loosen up a little and speak very spontaneously.

Also, in MUN you have placards with your countries’ names on it you put them high in the sky when you want to get recognised. When you are acknowledged by the board, you get up and take the floor. In EYP, there are no placards. You are addressed with your name. You form somewhat of a circle in the committee room and sit like that. Whenever you want to say something, you wait for the person who’s already speaking to finish, and when they are, you just start talking. No acknowledgement from the chair. If it gets to a point where people interrupt each other while speaking, the chair gets involved to ease the committee, otherwise, chair board don’t interfere much with the debate going on.

The formality is pretty much the biggest difference between MUN and EYP. In MUN, you are expected to wear fully formal clothes, ties are mandatory for men. In EYP, apart from opening and closing ceremony, you are not obligated to wear formal clothes. Ripped jeans don’t meet the dress code either but the formality of MUN is not present in EYP. While doing committee work, you don’t have to wear formal clothes and men don’t have to wear ties. This again gives you a freedom with what you will wear. You can wear more comfortable clothes.

The plenary session is different too. In MUN, when you are a delegate in GA committee, you sit with your delegation in Plenary session. Each one of you can talk as much as you want and ask many questions as possible. But in EYP, since there are no delegations, you sit with your committee and represent your committee as a whole. Before coming in the GA session, you decide on assignments of everyone and people act accordingly. When you want to say something or ask something regarding the debate going on, you inform your chair to raise the placard. He raises the placard of your committee. If you are recognised, you get up and talk on behalf of your committee. The procedure of resolution debating goes committee by committee. There is a direct response motion which basically means that you have something to say, add or ask to the debate that is happening at that exact second. You only get to use that motion twice in each resolution. Apart from that, the procedure does not differ too much.

Lastly awards. In closing ceremony of a MUN conference, awards are announced by the chair board. In EYP there are no awards announced. In NSC, since it is a selection conference, there is a board of JURY that comes, watches, listens and observes delegates during your committee work time. They evaluate you in every aspect. There are 5-6 people in the jury board that examines the way you behave in the committee and out of the committee. At least a jury is present in each session and in plenary, all of them are present. If you do a good job, you get selected to EYP. The results of the selection are not announced during the closing ceremony though, they send you a mail about your selection after the conference in 15-20 days.

Overall, I think EYP is an experience that everyone should have. The procedure and formality are pretty different when compared to MUN. Being the MUN enthusiast I am, I have to say I enjoy MUN conferences more but NSC was quality time too. Try both of them to see which one would you prefer. Then, pick your side. Good Luck!

Melisa DERTLİ

Writer of MUNTurkey.com

Note: All pictures are taken from the official Facebook page of Ankara 2018 – 22nd National Selection Conference of EYP Turkey

Pictures

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