… Manos Moschopoulos and Art Ward. Besides live tweeting from the rounds and rooms, we’ve gone completely, no, not insane, but multimedia. You don’t know who Manos and Art are? Then meet them in our video taken Monday night at Galway Euros. They are both involved in the Belgrade bid for Euros next year, Art is chief adjudicator and Manos one of the forces behind this bid from Serbia.

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.

Note from the editor: During Galway, we’ll be publishing mostly in English only. Thanks for understanding.