VII Simulation of the Basque Parliament

The University of Deusto is working on the seventh edition of the Basque Parliament Simulation. This project was initiated by students linked to the debate club and has been consolidated through ongoing educational collaboration between the Basque Parliament and the University of Deusto.

In the simulation, students engage in an entire legislative process, modeled after the Basque Parliament. This means that initiatives are processed from start to finish: drafting the text, holding expert hearings, going through the amendment phase, debating in working groups and committees, and finally voting in the Plenary Session. The Basque Parliament’s process is precisely replicated, including a Government, 75 parliamentarians, parliamentary groups, advisors, legal experts, Committees, Working Groups, and the Plenary Session.

This year, the teaching team supervising the student simulation has chosen two real legislative initiatives for study and debate: the Euskadi Transparency Bill and the Popular Legislative Initiative for Measures to Guarantee a Pension Supplement. Both initiatives are also being worked on in the official languages, Spanish and Basque.

Both legislative initiatives have already passed the simulated amendment phase, and the Working Groups and Committees (simulated) have taken place. Finally, the Committee reports will be submitted to the (simulated) Plenary Session.

Therefore, two Plenary Sessions will be held on Friday, March 28. The first will take place in the morning at the Basque Parliament, where the Euskadi Transparency Bill will be debated (which lapsed due to the dissolution of Parliament and the call for elections in 2024). The session will begin at 11:00 AM and will be broadcast live on the Basque Parliament’s website.

To conclude the project, the second Plenary Session will be held in the afternoon in the auditorium of the Bilbao campus of the University of Deusto. Here, the current Popular Legislative Initiative for Measures to Guarantee a Pension Supplement will be debated.

Through this simulation, both institutions continue to strengthen different methodologies for teaching, learning, and communicating parliamentary activity, contributing to the education of young people regarding the nature, role, and functioning of the institution that represents Basque citizens.

For the seventh consecutive year, students participating in the initiative not only learn firsthand how a legislative process unfolds but also engage with various current issues. Places of worship, Vocational Training, Youth, Cooperatives, Historical Memory, and Equality, among others, have been debated in previous editions, in which more than 250 university students have taken on the role of parliamentarians.