On 23 January 2025, the 10th anniversary of the “NRW debattiert Europa” competition took place in Duisburg. The University of Cologne has been a regular participant since the beginning and was represented this year by an English-speaking and a German-speaking team of students from the “Institutional Reform of the European Union” course in the Master's programme in Political Science. A total of six teams from universities in North Rhine-Westphalia and one team from Radboud University in Nijmegen took part in the competition.
The participants competed in both German and English against teams from different universities to discuss key European policy issues. The topics discussed included the introduction of European parties in EU elections instead of national parties, the issue of Eurobonds to strengthen the EU's defence capabilities and the idea of gradual integration of candidate countries. The pros and cons of each topic were analysed and weighed up in heated debates. The two teams from the University of Cologne achieved very good jury scores in both preliminary round debates and the English-speaking team even made it to the final - but was then narrowly defeated by the strong team from Radboud University.
In addition to the debates, the event also offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with students from other universities. The relaxed atmosphere outside of the competition rounds helped participants to network better and share their experiences in debating and their views on European policy issues - some topics continued to be hotly debated even after the debates had ended.
The “NRW debattiert Europa” format is sponsored by the NRW State Chancellery and has been awarded the Europe-wide PADEMIA Teaching Prize. For ten years, it has offered students a great opportunity to engage intensively with current European policy issues and to strengthen their debating and argumentation skills. In addition to the academic benefits, the trip to Duisburg was also a great social experience that brought the students closer together as a team.
Click here for the photos of the anniversary edition!