"The intensive seminar in Brusels accounted for one of the most important parts of the master, since it was the means to actually know the institutions and the political environment of the European Union. With the intensive seminar in Brussels, which took place right after the conclusion of the first semester and lasted one week, I was able to actually know the institutions were the main decisions of the European Union are made. It was organised jointly with the European partner universities of the Hochschule Bremen and students from Riga, Latvia, shared with us this experience. We visited the European Commission several times, the European Council, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions as well as the Representative Office of the City of Bremen in Brussels, where we attended several lectures that gave us the opportunity to have first-hand information and that also were the best occasion to raise questions and to discuss deeper certain matters that we learnt in the classroom.

To experience the environment of Brussels and of each one of the European Institutions encouraged me even more to get involved into European matters and to find out the role that my country can play in them. The intensive seminar also involved working in teams with master students from Riga, Latvia. We were assigned an up to date topic related to the EU, mainly on the Constitutional Treaty to elaborate on our opinion based on research done through the Internet and the lectures we attended. We also had a guided tour of Brussels and gatherings that added more cohesion to the group." (Marisol Oropeza, MES graduate 04/05)