Leprechauns and a pot of gold – those of our appreciated readers who are travelling to Ireland this weekend are most probably not after goblins and treasures, but want one thing: the title as winners of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros). From Sunday to Friday, Galway at the West coast of Ireland will be stage to Europe’s greatest debate tournament. 200 teams of two are going to compete; they are from all over Europe and as far as from Israel and Qatar. And, of course, from Germany. Language of debate is English, the format is called British Parliamentary Style, BPS.

Apart from the speakers, there are judges. Their job: Judging the debates. Supreme judge and paramount setter of motions is chief adjudicator Ruth Faller, her deputies are Shengwu Li, Simone van Elk, Yoni Cohen and Steven Nolan. Equity officers are Isabelle Loewe and Tony Murphy. The latter two make sure that “no-one is mean to each other at Euro’s”, as is stated on the homepage of Galway Euros. Tabmaster is Harry McEvansoneya. He is said tob e able to ”assign judges based solely on the CA teams breathing patterns”. Of course, the burden of judging is not on their shoulders alone: they managed to gather a pool of the most competent debaters from across the continent and beyond, among them Anat and Michael Shapira, Manos Moschopoulos, Jens Fischer, Maja Cimerman, Stephen Boyle and Leela Koenig.

Friday afternoon will see two finals: At first the ESL final where debaters who are not native speakers of English (hence ESL as in English as a Second Language) are going to compete for the title as ESL champion. Later in the afternoon, the grand open final will see the teams that are competing for the European champion. The finals will be followed by a gala dinner and the Championship Ball.

However, before that, debaters as well as judges have to survive nine prelims, octos, quarters and semis. The evenings will be filled with socials since debaters like partying, as goes a rumour. On Friday morning, the EUDC Council will sit. Achte Minute did already to talk to Jens Fischer, president of the EUDC Council for two years now, about the tasks and duties of the Council. The most eminent task: Deciding upon who will be host of the following year’s Euros. This year, the two original bidders are from Leeds (Great Britain) and from the Serbian capital Belgrade. But Wednesday night, a note from Leeds revealed that they were cancelling their plans to bid for Euros. Galway itself had been assigned hosting the Euros at Amsterdam Euros last year.

Achte Minute is going to report all results, motions and Council decisions from Galway. Read our homepage, visit us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. The hashtag reads #EUDC. And in case we from Achte Minute are going to capture a Leprechaun… well, we might keep the pot of gold for ourselves, but we’re definitely gonna tweet about it!

The European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) have been held annually since 1999. It was started in Rotterdam where 32 teams of two competed for the title. For the records: In Amsterdam, 192 teams competed for the very same title in 2010. Format has ever since been British Parliamentary Style(BPS), language of debate is English. Debaters from all over Europe and Israel take part in Euros and compete with each other in two categories: the open break (for native speakers) and “English as a Second Language” (ESL). Current champions are Eoghan Casey and Patrick Rooney (Kings Inn), ESL champions are Maja Cimerman and Filip Dobranic from Ljubljana. This year’s Euros will be held in Galway, Ireland, from 7 to 13 August. Chief adjudicator is Ruth Faller (Ireland), her deputies are Shengwu Li (Singapore), Simone van Elk (The Netherlands), Steven Nolan (Ireland) and Yoni Cohen Idov (Israel). Isabelle Loewe from Debattierclub Bonn and Tony Murphy (Ireland) will be equity officers. Galway’s tabmaster is Harry McEvansoneya, an Irish as well. During the Euros, the EUDC Council will sit and for instance decide about the host of next year’s championship. Currently, Belgrade (Serbia) is bidding for staging the European Universities Debating Championships 2012.