Medvedja – As part of this year’s European School of Debate, a debate of secondary school students was held in Medvedja, which was organized by the EU Info Center from Belgrade and the Nis EU Info and Open Communications Corner. 

Six secondary school students from Medvedja and Nis debated, in the festival room of the Municipal Assembly of Medvedja, on the topic of "Should the European Union Have a Common Migration and Asylum Policy?"

Representatives of the “government”, who opposed the common migration and asylum policy,  and representatives of the “opposition”, who supported it, spoke at the speaking podium one after the other.

The secondary school students, who represented the “government”, were of the view that the states should decide on the matter independently, corroborating their line of reasoning with the recent examples from the practice of Poland and Slovakia.

Representatives of the “opposition”, who supported the common migration and asylum policy, corroborated their stand by the argument that the life of refugees would improve thanks to the single asylum policy.  

Jury members assessed that the opposition was more convincing, while the majority of the audience voted for secondary school students who represented the ,, government ''.

Participants in the debate prepared themselves for the debate at the workshops held over the past few months, where they learned to think critically and to approach problems argumentatively, as well as to think carefully about each issue.

The European school of debate is organized for the fourth year in a row thanks to the support of the EU Delegation to Serbia, while the best debaters will participate in the final debate, which will be held at the Belgrade-based National Assembly in May.

Source: Jugpress and Coordination Body