A group of 40 11-year-olds from the European School in Brussels yesterday had the opportunity to become MEPs for a day. The initiative was organised by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil together with Michael Short, a British interpreter serving in the EU institutions.

The children took part in a mock committee meeting in the European Parliament on the theme: What Is Wrong With The World And What I Can Do To Make It Better.

The children took on the role of MEPs and exchanged views under the same format as formal EP committee meetings.

Dr Busuttil told The Times yesterday that the idea was to allow the children to obtain first-hand experience of what an MEP does and how the facilities of the European Parliament work. This debate was chaired by Dr Busuttil who was accompanied by school teacher Noel Scully and Kieran Bradley, an EP official who works as Head of Unit for Legal Services in the area of Justice and Civil Liberties.

Interpretation was also made available throughout the debate, allowing the children, who come from different member states, including Malta, to speak in their mother tongue as happens in real committee meetings. During the debate, the students brought up a number of issues, including war and violence, racism, humanitarian and environmental issues, mentioning both the problems and what they would do to resolve them.

After the debate the children were taken to the chamber of the European Parliament where Dr Busuttil explained what a plenary session is and how MEPs vote.