This grant request is intended for the national conference of the Model European Parliament in the Netherlands in 2015. The Model European Parliament (MEP) is a simulation of the European Parliament, in which young people aged 15-18 fulfil the task of a 'Member of the European Parliament' for a week. During the national MEP conference students are introduced to the complex and democratic political processes surrounding the European decision-making. They learn to actively participate in democracy and understand the importance of cooperation between different EU Member States. During the conference topical issues are raised, which also play a role of importance in the European Parliament; a lot of attention is paid to issues of youth policy. The purpose of the Model European Parliament project is to encourage young people to become active citizens with a strong social and political awareness and also to give them insight into the process of European integration and the functioning of the European Union. By participating in the European Parliament simulation they are actively involved in political decision-making and experience how they can contribute to democracy. The six-day national MEP conference is an extracurricular activity. Young people learn to develop multiple skills outside the institutionalized school environment within a formally organized simulation. They learn deliberately and casually from interactions with peers and stakeholders / decision makers. Besides the substantive elaboration on EU topics this also affects their social skills. The 150 delegates and 15 young committee chairmen are selected from preliminaries of MEP conferences organized at school and provincial level; in 2015, spread throughout the Netherlands there are about 130 schools and more then 2000 students involved. The leadership of the provincial conferences is held by provincial / regional coordinators. The delegations are formed through the various selection rounds in all 12 provinces and the regions Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Each delegation is representing a European Member State during the national MEP conference. The first days of the national MEP conference, participants gather together per committee for teambuilding and committee meetings. During the committee meetings the young people interact with policy makers, talk about their subject and after that, compose resolutions with each other. On the fourth day all participants travel to The Hague, where the conference will be officially opened in the prestigious conference room of the Dutch Senate and participants will be in contact with the speaker of the Senate and the ambassador of Luxembourg in the Netherlands. Shortly after the opening the contestants start with their delegation meetings and lobbying for their resolutions. The last two days the resolutions are to be defended and voted about at the General Assembly. This GA is hosted by the plenary conference hall of the Dutch House of Representatives. At the official closing ceremony, the importance of their work was mentioned by a former Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the EU and by a member of parliament. At the end of the national conference participants will be selected to represent the Netherlands at the European MEP conference. The MEP program challenges excellent youth and encourages them to develop themselves extensively. During the MEP conference you perform good when you dare to speak out with properly founded arguments and convince your fellow participants with the well-developed social skills. The young people can develop themselves in a matter that they can make a difference in the future in both the Dutch and European society. The slogan used by the Montesquieu Institute is: "The young people of today will soon decide about the future."