Founded in Fontainebleau
The European Youth Parliament was founded in 1987 as a school project at the Lycée François-Premier in Fontainebleau, to the south of Paris. The first International Session was also held there in 1988.
Moving to Oxfordshire
The EYP project then developed steadily and started to include more countries and schools. In 1991, the international coordination of the project moved to Witney, Oxfordshire, where it was run by Bettina Carr-Allinson (NL). The organisation experienced an enduring growth for the next decade with an increasing number of National Committees joining the network and its activities becoming both larger and more numerous.
The National Committees stretch beyond the Member States of the European Union and aim at including all European countries. In the beginning of 2012, the EYP has 36 official recognised National Committees as well as three initiatives seeking membership.
EYP in Berlin
Between 2001 and 2004, the EYP encountered financial problems and in 2004 the former international umbrella organisation was disbanded. Following this, the National Committees of the EYP mandated the Schwarzkopf Foundation to act as a new international umbrella organisation for the EYP. The coordination of the network moved to Berlin and Philipp Scharff (DE) took the position of a full-time Executive Director of the EYP. He was succeeded by Jan-Philipp Beck (DE) in 2008 and by Ville Vasaramäki (FI) in 2011.
Today the EYP is one of the largest European platforms for political debate, intercultural encounters, political educational work and the exchange of ideas among young people in Europe. The EYP consists of a network of 36 independent organisations in which thousands of young people are active in a voluntary capacity. The network engages about 20 000 young Europeans every year. This is achieved by organising more than 100 sessions around Europe and by running other projects related to European topics.
See the full list of the International Session of the EYP.
More about EYP on the international homepage.