Simulation games can run from a few hours to several days or weeks – and a project for the Council of the European Union had to master precisely this balancing act. The existing games of the Council of the European Union are at one end of this spectrum: the ConSiMun simulation games are implemented by the Council of the European Union with university students over a period of one week, with support for the participants provided directly by the Council Secretariat.

The two simulation games on emission limits for newly registered motor vehicles and the expansion of the charging infrastructure on the one hand, and on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and horizontal cyber security on the other, now had to be adapted to a significantly shorter format: Instead of a week, the simulation game should now be implementable in two hours, in both a standard and an advanced version. The challenge was therefore to greatly reduce the complexity of the simulation games without obscuring the underlying political conflicts and institutional processes.

Thankfully, we were able to build on an existing template. Back in 2019, we developed a simulation game on the topic of fair fashion for the Council of the European Union. The simulation game has been used regularly and successfully by the Council of the European Union ever since, so we were able to use it as a guide in terms of game dynamics and timing.

Nevertheless, the development process presented a number of challenges. While fair fashion is a fictional legislative proposal, the ConSiMun simulation games negotiate two real Commission proposals each, including detailed positions and background information for each country. It was clear that cuts and simplifications would be necessary – but where and how?

First of all, we determined which points of contention the participants would discuss at the end. In some cases, more radical cuts were necessary in order to reduce two Commission proposals to a scenario that could be played in two hours – for example, we decided to omit the topic of ‘horizontal cyber security’ from the digital policy section, focusing only on the regulation of AI so as not to overload the participants.

Once the points of contention had been determined – with the advanced version featuring an additional point of contention – the profiles of the respective countries were then reduced. Even though the points of contention provided clear guidance here, it was still not always easy to decide against compelling arguments if they were not a priority for the respective delegations.

As is so often the case when creating simulation games, we had no choice but to make some painful cuts. This ensured that the European Council simulation games could be played in both difficulty levels within two hours.

Last but not least, we also adapted the existing handout for the Fair Fashion simulation game, so that there is now a common handout for all ‘Minister for a Day’ games of the Council of the European Union. These are freely available and can be downloaded in all official languages of the EU at this link – so feel free to take a look at the materials.