The break to the Finals at the European Universities Debating Championship 2014 has been announced.

In the ESL category, Berlin A, Lund A, Belgrade B and BBU A made it through the semi-finals with the motion “This house believes that leaders of minority religions in Europe should strongly encourage their congregations to refrain from public displays of their faith”. In the Open break, Oxford A, Sheffield A, Nottingham A, and Edinburgh A won the semi-finals with the motion “THBT the US should invade and forceably partition Iraq”.

Semi-finals of the Zagreb EUDC

In the Open semi-final 1, the following teams competed:

• OG: Edinburgh A
• OO: KCL A
• CG: Oxford A
• CO: BPP A

The debate was judged by Michael Shapira (Chair), Rebecca Meredith, Sella Nevo, Arielle Dundas, Rogier Baart, Matt Hazell, Roberto Sarrionandia.

In the Open semi-final 2, the following teams competed:

• OG: Oxford B
• OO: Nottingham
• CG: Cambridge A
• CO: Sheffield A

The debate was judged by Madeline Schultz, Colin Etnire, James Clough, Jonathan Kay, Yael Bezalel, Eitan Har-Oz, Fanele Mashwama.

ESL semi-finals

In the ESL semi-final 1, the following teams competed:

• OG: Berlin A
• OO: Hebrew A
• CG: Tartu A
• CO: BBU A

The debate was judged by Ashish Kumar, Greg Farquhar, Fred Cowell, Lucinda David, Gigi Gil, Manos Moschopoulos, Duncan Crowe

In the ESL semi-final 2, the following teams competed:

• OG: Belgrade A
• OO: Lund A
• CG: Belgrade B
• CO: Leiden A

The debate was judged by Maja Cimerman, Bo Seo, Anat Shapira, Pete Doughton, Patrick Bateman, Alex Harris, Patrick Ehmann.

All information about the breaking teams, judges, and motions is compiled in a Google Doc provided by the EUDC 2014 tab team.

The following motions were debated in the outrounds:

ESL tie break motion: This house would make membership in a labour union compulsory for every worker.

ESL quarter-final: This house would require companies to place images of animal suffering on all products or food whose production harmed or killed animals.

ESL semi-final: This house believes that leaders of minority religions in Europe should strongly encourage their congregations to refrain from public displays of their faith.

Open quarter-final: This house believes that supreme/constitutional courts should not have the power to strike down legislation.

Open semi-final: This house believes that the United States of America should invade, and forcibly partition Iraq.

nbo/hug