EU crisis management in practice: simulation game of diplomacy students

From 7 to 11 February 2022, the students of the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies programme at the College of Europe in Bruges embarked upon tense negotiations to find a response to two concrete, hypothetical crisis situations in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood and in the Middle East. During an entire week, the students transformed into staffers at the European External Action Service, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, Working Group experts, Ambassadors to the Political and Security Committee and Foreign Ministers from the EU member states as well as critical journalists representing POLITICO, EURACTIV and the Financial Times. The students discussed varying topics, ranging from efforts to provide humanitarian aid to strengthening up a fact-finding mission to clarify the situation on the ground. The teams drafted member-state position briefs, option papers, Council Decisions and Conclusions and press releases. Moreover, the students were active on a special ‘Tuiter’ platform created for the simulation. The negotiations were tough but, nevertheless, the hushed conversations in the corridors, the discussions in the official meetings and the informal debates over lunch culminated in the Foreign Affairs Council agreeing on a common EU response to the two crises. This response included for the first crisis strengthening an EU Border Assistance Mission and deploying an EU battlegroup to secure an airport. As for the second conflict, the Council equally decided to strengthen an EU Border Assistance Mission but to shift its focus towards the conflict at hand. 

This annual simulation game is an integral part of the study programme. Directed by a negotiation expert, Alejandro RIBO LABASTIDA, and Quentin WEILER, Head of the Political Section/Deputy Head of Delegation at the European Union Delegation to Chile, it offers a realistic experience of EU crisis management by immersing students in a compact, high-pace exercise which allows them to apply their knowledge on EU external action and their bargaining skills acquired in the courses they followed in the first semester. Rector Federica MOGHERINI joined the final debriefing session, sharing with students her experience as former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

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