IV. Grêmio International Simulation SISV - Foundation Office Brazil
Event Reports
This was the fourth edition of a simulation organised by the São Vicente secondary school in which a mock International Organisation is set up and secondary school students act as Heads of Government and State. This year the mock was of the Security Council of the United Nations, the G20 meeting between Heads of State as well as of the Municipal Parliament of Rio de Janeiro. From the 6th to the 10th of July 2015 the delegates met in their respective committees to discuss the most appropriate and realistic options in each case. The most successful delegates will receive a prize during the final ceremony. 135 students of the secondary school participated in the negotiations.
Christian Mattäus opened the conference this year with an hour-and-a-half long presentation about the political and economic challenges faced by the EU in the 21st century. He noted that it is important not to lose sight of the fundamental aim of the EU within the current context of the Greek 'No' on whether to accept or reject the conditions imposed by the Eurogroup, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to enable a medium-term solution for the sovereign debt crisis. The EU construct symbolises the European continent's longest period of peace in recent centuries. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, from whose name the Konrad Adenauer Foundation derives, represents, along with French President Charles de Gaulle, the peaceful economic integration of Germany, France, the Benelux countries and Italy, which resulted in ever-increasing political integration. Mattäus pointed out that each crisis the EU has been through has left it stronger than before. He was thus equally confident that Greek sovereign debt crisis will also become a vector towards further European integration. An animated discussion followed Mattäus' presentation in which Russia's influence over the Greek left-wing Syriza party was debated as well as the consequences of austerity measures in countries already suffering from the economic crisis since 2008. Pertaining to this point Matthäus highlighted the stable growth indices of Ireland, Spain and Portugal, all of which - after undergoing structural reform - returned to a position of significant economic growth. Greece still needs to undergo similar structural reform before it can bounce back.
