Founded in Fontainebleau
The European Youth Parliament was founded in 1987 as a school project at the Lycée François-Premier in Fontainebleau, just south of Paris. The first International Session was also held there in 1988.
Moving to Oxfordshire
The EYP project then developed steadily and started to include more countries and schools. In 1991, the international coordination of the project moved to Witney, Oxfordshire, where it was run by Bettina Carr-Allinson (NL). The organisation experienced an enduring growth for the next decade with an increasing number of National Committees joining the network and its activities becoming both larger and more numerous.
EYP in Berlin
Between 2001 and 2004, the EYP encountered financial problems and in 2004, the former international umbrella organisation was disbanded. Following this, the National Committees of the EYP mandated the Schwarzkopf Foundation to act as a new international umbrella organisation for the EYP. The coordination of the network moved to Berlin and Philipp Scharff (DE) became the first full-time Executive Director of the EYP. He was succeeded by Jan-Philipp Beck (DE) in 2008, by Ville Vasaramäki (FI) in 2011 and Krista Simberg (FI) in 2013. Since 2017, Lukas Fendel (DE) is the Executive Director of the EYP.
Since 2004, the EYP has continued to grow steadily, today involving young people from virtually all European countries in its activities. With over 500 events held across the network every year, including more than 30.000 participants from 40 countries and the work of more than 3.500 volunteers, the European Youth Parliament today is the largest organisation for non-formal European political education.