Day 3 of YMGE

Tonight we have 2 students reporting on their work at the conference. First up is Tarun, the Finnish Minister of Energy, and Rahul, a French member of the EU Parliament, wrote the second paragraph. 

Today in the council of energy ministers, EU members discussed a multitude of ways to deal with the current energy crisis initiated by the Russian oil firm known as Gazprom. Some measures passed by this council include plans to scale up on natural gas imports from OPEC, North Africa, and the Middle East while also turning towards wood-based energy and nuclear power. The council established that scaling up on natural gas imports is a great temporary measure to aid in our attempt to rid the EU of the current crisis. Additionally, wood-based energy, obtained from the forests of Finland, was determined to be another way in which to aid in the transition of the EU from fossil fuel dependence, to clean and renewable energy. The long-term solution to the current energy crisis lies in nuclear energy due to its massive energy output, with relatively few emissions; however, waste disposal in this process must be addressed. (TS)

The day in the European Parliament was an action-packed one as well. Following our resolution passed yesterday, which talked about increasing cyber security and switching from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy in the long run. Today the Parliament was able to figure out who hacked the Russian energy systems. Last night before we recessed we received an anonymous text saying, “PLAN Langos is in action. Plan Langos is in action. TAPTAPTAPATAPT.” Today a new twitter feed named Tapped_Out started tweeting cryptic messages about our committee. One of the members of the Parliament recognized the profile picture for Tapped_Out as the symbol for an Azerbaijani oil company. After a few google searches we were able to discovery that this was the symbol of SOCAR. Later we received an update saying that this was in fact true and SOCAR had committed this crime. Towards the end to the session we passed a resolution that had been created for in coordination with the NATO Committee. I myself also visited the Council of Agriculture and Food to speak with them about their agenda. Tomorrow we plan to vote on another resolution that was made in accordance with NATO. (RP)

At the end of day, we bundled up and hopped on the Metro to dinner. The underground railway system is very easy to use. We dined in the museum district on traditional Hungarian food and took in the sights and smells of the Christmas Market afterwards. 

Now students are in their penultimate session and we are quickly winding up our trip. As a group, we'll attend closing ceremonies and then change clothes and head out for some final sightseeing beginning around the Danube Promenade. Lunch will be at the Christmas Market where street food is available as well as McDonald's and Starbucks. Then we are getting on a touring bus to see the Buda side of the city. We'll try to post a few more pictures tonight; otherwise, it will be a very early bed time. Our shuttle is whisking us away to the airport at 4am tomorrow. See you soon!