European Student Think Tank and European Horizons host first ever European Policy Prize

This March saw the culmination of the first ever European Policy Prize with KU Leuven student Stan Bruurs taking the Grand Prize for his essay entitled ‘Truth of Dare: Promoting Labour Rights with a European Labour Contract’.

The competition saw entrants from twenty different universities from across two continents, featuring pieces of topics ranging from climate change to electoral practice, digital infrastructure to the European refugee crisis. The judges of the competition were unanimously impressed with the depth and breadth of the policy proposals on offer, particularly the ways in which these issues were framed in the wider political contexts of Europe.

Marc Friedli who wrote on e-Democratising the EU Elections and a team from LSE (consisting of Sarah Doyel, Sarah Phillips, Charalmapos Koromvokis and Sydney Arceneaux) offering a solution to the crisis of the CEAS also earned top spots in the competition.

As part of their Prize, each competition winner had the chance to have a call with one of the competition’s executive judges:

• Klaus Welle, the Secretary General of the European Parliament
• Dragos Pislaru MEP
• Tamara Perisin, the youngest judge at the General Court of the European Union.

During this time, they discussed the European Policymaking Process, as well as the implications of their essay, and how such ideas might be put into practice.

Tamara Perisin gave the team from LSE an insight into her career at the intersection between her work in academia and at the European Court and told our winners about her optimism for the European Project and European Law, which has become more and more important in recent times. Klaus Welle, the longest serving Secretary-General of the European Parliament, talked to Marc about some of the difficulties and opportunities of working in the European Parliament. But his message to the young people of Europe was clear: when there’s a will, there’s a way.

Each of our winners have also received a waiver to the upcoming European Horizons Conference and will see their work published in either the European Horizons’ or EST’s upcoming policy journals. As our Grand Prize winner, Stan will also receive a book courtesy of our sponsors, TEPSA.

From everyone at the European Student Think Tank and European Horizons, we’d like to think all of our entrants, judges, and hardworking organisation members for making the competition such an enjoyable occasion.

You can view the official press release here: EPP_2021_Press Release.