The Amsterdam Euros (EUDC) started with a kick-off event on Monday where ICC deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda talked about “Should we accept a war criminal’s offer for peace in exchange for amnesty?” A report on the public debate is available online on the EUDC blog.

On Tuesday, Amsterdam saw the first four of eight preliminaries of the EUDC. Almost 200 teams compete for European Universities Debating Championship, among them 15 teams from VDCH: two each from Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne (Tilbury) and Vienna, one each from Greifswald, Göttingen, Mainz, Potsdam and　St. Gallen. As is reported, they have good chances at breaking into ESL final rounds, i.e. for speakers of English as second language. Still, there are VDCH teams that are not allowed break into ESL final rounds since among them are English native speakers. They must hope to break at the “Main” break. Wednesday is staging the second half of preliminaries. In the evening, participants eagerly expect the announcement of the break: Which teams are going to make it into the final rounds?

Motions of the first four preliminaries:

• This House believes that the EU should pursue new member states by removing all non-economic membership conditions, including political system and global location.
• This House believes that schools should prioritise authority of the teacher over enjoyment of the pupil.
• This House would offer increased aid to the developing world countries that encourage and accept large influxes of immigrants.
• This House believes that social disgust is a sufficient justification for censoring art.

The European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) 2010 are staged in Amsterdam from July 12 to 17. The tournament’s slogan reads “Spread the love”. Motions and more info on the competition can continually be found on twitter, look for hashtag #EUDC. You may also read current tweets in the Achte Minute magazine on the right bar.

glx / apf