The National Student Parliament takes place every two years, with different law faculties competing with each other in the treatment of a fictitious bill. In this edition, the fictional government submitted a bill to amend the Constitution to (further) parliamentarize the appointment procedure of the members of the Supreme Court and the Council of State.
After months of working on the written documents and negotiations with other groups, the final proceedings took place on 24 May 2019 in the plenary room of the House of Representatives.
Every university delegates members and every group received a political colour by drawing lots. Our students were assigned 'GroenLinks', and therefore chose the appropriate name: 'Groen aan de Maas'. This year's faction consisted of Cheyenne Kooijman (chairman), Lars Klappe, Jessica Keemink and Valerie de Brito. They were supervised by Dr Nick Efthymiou and Lianne van Kalken of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law (Erasmus School of Law).
The members of the group should not only be able to understand the legal matter, but also have a good command of the political game. In the autumn of 2018, the written consideration of the bill began, after which comments were made and amendments were submitted. After the written part and the final negotiations were completed, the oral hearing took place on Friday 24 May in the plenary room of the House of Representatives. After having debated for hours with the other MPs and the government, the vote followed on the amendments, motions and the entire bill submitted. In the end, the bill was not adopted, as a result of which 'Groen aan de Maas' as an opposition party achieved its goal. Despite the strong contribution of our fraction, a jury of experts rewarded Radboud University Nijmegen with the first prize: the Silver Thorbeck Medal.
