Bernardo Bonifácio, a second-year student on the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) undergraduate degree, has been selected by the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities to join the Portuguese delegation participating in the “ConSIMium 2026” project. In this project, students from all over Europe, taking on the role of national decision-makers, take a crash course in European policy-making while negotiating new rules for the entire European Union. These teams can play various roles, such as EU leaders, ambassadors, national experts, ministers or journalists.

Over two days, six students from each team simulate two European Councils and a series of meetings at all levels of the Council of the EU on current issues. The delegations take part in several preparatory meetings of national experts (working groups) and ambassadors (Coreper – Committee of Permanent Representatives) before simulating a ministerial meeting in which they try to reach a compromise.

ConSIMium, organised by the General Secretariat of the Council, is a Council simulation exercise in which 27 teams of students from all EU Member States experience first-hand the negotiation process between Member States and the decision-making process at European level.