The trip to Strasbourg
Every autumn, ELSA Uppsala (the Local Group of ELSA Sweden) organises a trip to the capital of Alsace. Strasbourg is a city rich in history and culture and the seat of several EU institutions and international organisations. The trip gives 20 to 25 members of ELSA Uppsala the opportunity to visit Strasbourg every year. The main reason for our visit to Strasbourg is to give our members an insight into the international arena of politics and business. In early October we spent six days in Strasbourg. We also visited the Court of Justice and the Council of Europe.
We want our members to see the plenary sessions of the European Parliament, so we choose to go at this time. It's not every day we see representatives from all Member States in one place discussing current affairs in real-time. We want to inspire those who are considering a career in the EU and those who want to gain more knowledge and insight into the inner workings of the Parliament by visiting the Parliament and observing the sessions.
The trip is designed to combine academic and social activities. During the days we usually visit institutions and organisations. In the evenings we organise social activities for our members. This year we also visited the beautiful city of Paris, which our members greatly appreciated. We took the train from Strasbourg to Paris on a Saturday morning and spent our last night in Paris before we had to travel back to Sweden.
The Board of ELSA Uppsala
A testimonial
Strasbourg is a very cosy city and I could see why it has been called the biggest village in Europe, as everything seems to be small. The EU atmosphere wasn't as present as in Brussels, but I could still feel the international impact. We visited the European Court of Human Rights, the European Council and the European Parliament during our trip. In all three places, there were many interesting things to learn. In the European Court of Human Rights, there was a big wall with case numbers connected to the different articles of the ECHR, and it was very cool to recognise the different cases from Uppsala Law School. They had given us an Icelandic guide, who was incredibly nice, so they knew we were from Sweden. I enjoyed the visit very much.
On the second day of our stay, we visited the European Parliament and I recognised the atmosphere from my visit to the Parliament in Brussels last year. We were met by two Swedish members of staff who showed us around and gave a talk about the EU and how the Parliament works. The whole visit was very interesting. I also enjoyed being able to recognise some of the information from the school. Afterwards, we had the chance to be part of a parliamentary session where the most interesting topic was the escalation of the situation in Iran. The atmosphere in the parliament was very tense and there were a number of heated debates on the subject, which was incredibly interesting to watch. It felt almost surreal to be in the same room as these parliamentarians who decide issues on our behalf.
The day ended with the whole group having a meal together, local food from the Strasbourg region, and although I can't remember the name of the dish, it was quite delicious.
Jens Forslin, one of the participants of the trip
