Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Again we’re cheering for Berlin: Team A of the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) made it to the semis: Jonas Werner and Niels Schröter – yay! In quarters, they were closing opp in a debate on “This house supports life sentences without the possibility of parole for serial re-offenders.” Now, they’re debating the motion “This house believes that the militaries in newly democratized Arab countries should act as the guardian angels of society” from closing gov.

The draw for ESL semis

ESL Semi 1

• OG: Tallinn
• OO: Tel Aviv
• CG: RRIS B
• CO: BBU B

ESL Semi 2

• OG: Galatasaray
• OO: BGU B
• CG: Berlin A
• CO: Leiden A

The draw for open semis

Earlier this afternoon, the teams of the so-called open break – open to everybody proficient enough to take up with the best teams of Europe – competed in the semi-finals. The motion set was “This house believes that schools should aggressively stream students, according to their abilities, from a young age.”

Open semi 1

• OG: Oxford A
• OO: ULU B
• CG: BPP A
• CO: Cambridge C

Open semi 2

• OG: TCD Hist A
• OO: Cambridge A
• CG: TCD Hist B
• CO: UCD L&H A

Motions of preliminary rounds 1 to 9

1. This house believes that parents should not send their children to private school.
2. This house believes that first nations people’s (e.g. aboriginals or native americans) who live in geographically distinct areas should be given complete autonomous self government.
3. This house believes that the music industry should not facilitate the comebacks of artists who commit violent crimes.
4. This house believes that the Mexican Government should remove all limits on law enforcement and the militar in the fight against organized crime.
5. This house believes that the European Central Bank (ECB) should unconditionally buy significant amounts of government debt from struggling Eurozone countries.
6. This house would limit the amount that can be spent by corporations in any one course of litigation.
7. This house would require the military to recruit soldiers in direct proportion to the socioeconomic makeup of their country proportion to the socioeconomic makeup of their country.
8. This house believes that the Palestinians should accept complete demilitarisation in return for a guaranteed sovereign state.
9. This house would allow anyone to take up residency in any country, provided that they will not be an economic burden on that country.

Motions of the final rounds

• Open quarters: This house believes that Republika Srpska should secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• ESL quarters: This house supports life sentences without the possibility of parole for serial re-offenders.
• Open semis: This house believes that schools should aggressively stream students, according to their abilities, from a young age.
• ESL semis: This house believes that the militaries in newly democratized Arab countries should act as the guardian angels of society.

Through the final rounds, follow us on Twitter (Hashtag #EUDC), have a look into Facebook or tune in to live streamed debates from all rounds – a cooperation of iDebate and Radio Mof.

The European Universities Debating Championship (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 even as far away as Israel and Qatar 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 Ben Woolgar and Hugh Burns (Oxford), ESL champions are Sella and Omer Nevo, two brothers from Tel Aviv University. This year’s Euros will be held in Belgrade, Serbia, from 5 to 11 August. Chief adjudicator is Art Ward, his deputies are Manos Moschopoulos, Isabelle Loewe, Ben Woolgar, Filip Muki Dobranic and Stephen Boyle. During the Euros, the EUDC Council will sit and for instance decide about the host of next year’s championship.