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International School of Stuttgart > learning at ISS > the diploma years > 11th grade students visit the European Parliament and the European Council
On Wednesday, March 12th, we, the 11th grade German B students at ISS and our German teacher Frau Sterzer-Paull, piled into a bus at the Stuttgart main bus station. It was a cold and rainy day and by 10:15, we finally reached our destination, Strasbourg. Our first stop was the Council of Europe which was founded in 1949, the oldest organization working for European integration with a particular emphasis on legal standards and protection of human rights, democratic development, and the rule of law in Europe. It is an international organization recognized under public international law that serves 800 million Europeans in 47 member states. At the heart of the Council of Europe lies the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights through which the convention is enforced. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their rights. We watched a video about the history of this institution, visited the assembly hall, and then we were treated to lunch. After lunch, the representative for the Stuttgart area, Mr. Rainer Wieland, gave us a talk (in German) about the European Union, his role as a representative, and what a regular working day looks like. We also visited the Louise Weiss Building with its impressive architecture. During our visit, we learned that the European Union is a political and economic community with 27 member states and with almost 500 million citizens; it is generating an estimated 33% share of the world’s gross domestic product. Fifteen members have adopted a common currency, the Euro. The EU represents its members in the World Trade Organization and attends the G8 summits and the United Nations. We were impressed when we heard that 23 different languages are spoken among the 27 member countries. The working languages of the European Community are English, French, and German. We were wondering if one of the ISS students will be working as a simultaneous translator for this organization one day. Our thanks go to the ﾑLandeszentrale für politische Bildung (Baden-Württemberg) and the “Europahaus” Stuttgart who organized the trip. We would like to share our newly acquired knowledge with other students at ISS and are preparing a quiz with general questions about Europe. We are wondering how much ISS students know about Europe and the European Parliament. We will keep you posted. Jade, Fiona, Mashid, Licia, Katrina, and Brendan |
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