5th edition of Brussels' World Simulation
Since 2018, Sciences Po Aix has been offering Master’s students the opportunity to participate in the serious gameBrussels’ World Simulation (BWS).
The game takes place between September and December and very faithfully reproduces a negotiation process within the EU. After several weeks of negotiations, the game ends with plenary sessions (that of the European Parliament and then that of the Council of Ministers of the EU) in front of an international jury (academics, experts, EU actors).
A programme supported by the A*Midex Foundation, the Ministry of National Education and Youth, the Konrad Adenaeur Foundation and the Robert Schuman Foundation.
The originality of the BWS experience lies in the diversity of roles that interfere, as in reality, with the European decision.
EU legislative institutional actors
- Commissioners, DG and Legal Service of the EU Commission
- MEPs (Political Groups and Committees of the EU Parliament)
- Permanent Representatives (COREPER) and Ministers in the Council of Ministers of the EU Member States
Non-legislative institutional actors
- Representatives of third States (China, United States, etc.), EESC, CoR
Non-institutional actors
- Media: Journalists accredited to the Brussels institutions (Financial Times, Le Monde, Politico, EURACTIV, etc.)
- Stakeholders: NGOs, lobbies, think tanks, etc.
The BWS welcomes students from several institutions:
- Sciences Po Aix
- The Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille University
- Sciences Po Strasbourg
- HEC Paris
- The Faculty of European Studies of Cluj-Napoca in Romania
- University of Freiburg in Germany
- Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Thanks to its dedicated digital and media tools, BWS offers a hyper-realistic immersion in the European decision-making process:
- 1 seminar (12 sessions of 1h) led by EU specialists (academics, practitioners)
- 1 digital platform: bws-game.eu
- 1 Youtube channel
- 1 dedicated social network (the BWS’ Tweet)
The 5th edition of Brussels’ World Simulation will address the theme of the environment!
This year, the EU’s decision-making sequence will be played out around the scenario “Update of EU Euro VII air pollution standards”. Let’s play!
To launch this edition, Pierre Vimont, Ambassador of France, former Executive Secretary General of the European External Action Service, gave a conference on the current challenges of the European Union. Replay available here.
The 2022 Player Guide is available here.
After the publication of its press release summarising its lines of work on the “Euro 7” standards, the European Commission decided to hear the players representing the Member States of the Council of the European Union, the MEPs of the European Parliament as well as the stakeholders. These hearings at the initiative of the College of Commissioners gave all legislative and non-legislative actors the opportunity to express their position before the publication of the pre-position papers on 4 November 2022.
To summarise the central points of the discussions raised during the stakeholder consultations, the Commission held its first press conference on 29 October 2022. In short, the end of the consultations marks the start of negotiations between the Commission and its partners before its publication of a legislative proposal scheduled for 18 November 2022.
The plenary sessions of the Parliament and the Council will be held live from the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 8 and 9 December 2022.
After more than six weeks of discussions on the European Commission’s proposal for a directive and regulation, MEPs and ministers from EU Member States will meet in plenary session to vote on their proposed amendments. The highlight of the simulation, the plenary highlights all the negotiation phases – from the first consultations to the trilogues – within the three main institutions of the European Union.