European Ethics Bowl 2023
The success of EEB 2022 was a perfect foundation for the new season. With the 2022 FIFA World Cup behind us and the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics, the overall theme “Ethics in Sport” was not a difficult choice. Especially when you consider that the sports industry’s revenue amounted to almost 487 billion US dollars in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.2%.
The live event, where the semi-final and final rounds of the competition were organised, took place on the third weekend of November in Ljubljana. National teams that had qualified for the semi-final round arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to compete against their peers from ten different countries. After two rounds of tough debates, the teams from Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Serbia reached the final4 and battled it out the next day for a place in the final round. After interesting debates, the teams from Portugal and Bulgaria won. After just two hours of preparation, both teams presented their arguments in front of a panel of five judges, the other teams and the coordinators.
Team Bulgaria, representing the University “St Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, won the final debate by just a few points and was crowned the winner of the European Ethics Bowl 2023.
The organisers would like to thank the fantastic teams who travelled from all over Europe to take part in this event, the esteemed judges for their time, thoughtful questions and fair judging, the moderators who ensured that all debates ran smoothly and on time, and all the coordinators and representatives who accompanied the students throughout these three days.
The organisers would also like to thank The Economist and the companies Atlantic Group, Spar Slovenija d.o.o., TBA d.o.o., Hofer trgovina d.o.o. and Henkel Slovenia for their support, donations and sponsorship of the event.
Institutional competitions
The Institutional competitions followed the lead of previous years and were organized by each institutional member. The case study titled “MORAL COST OF ENJOYING THE SPORT” was presented during the launch of EEB 2023.
This year participating students faced two dilemmas presented in the case study. First one was: “Where do we draw the line and with whom does moral responsibility lie for these cases?” and the second one was: “Do individuals have a moral responsibility towards such controversial sporting events? Should we watch, cheer, and ignore the obvious violations or abstain and protest the organisation of the event?”.
Semi-final & Final competition
On the weekend of 17 – 19 November 2023, the semi-finals and finals of the international competition European Ethics Bowl took place in Ljubljana. Ten teams from nine European universities and one team from the alumni programme of the European Investment Bank Institute Summer School took part in this year’s event.
On Saturday, during the semi-final round, teams from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Serbia and Slovenia competed in two rounds for the four places in the Final4 round. The students presented their views on given ethical topics related to ethical dilemmas in sport. After short presentations, they debated with the opposing teams, followed by questions from a panel of judges and assessment. The ethical issues were presented to the students in the form of specific case studies. The case studies were titled “Should the financial imbalances between football clubs be regulated and if so, how?” and “Exclusion of athletes from international competitions for non-sporting reasons”.
In the Final4 round, the teams discussed the topic of “Sponsorship in sport”. After exciting debates, Team Bulgaria and Team Portugal were announced as the two grand finalists.
The two final teams had just under two hours to prepare and research the topic of “Sports betting: A new economy built on vice”. They then competed in front a panel of five judges and the rest of the participants. The panel was made up of Slovenian and international experts covering the fields of economics, business, sports marketing and law. The final debate showed the outstanding debating performance of the finalists and led to a tough decision by the panel of judges.
Team Bulgaria, representing the University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, won the final debate by just a few points and was crowned the winner of the European Ethics Bowl 2023.
European Ethics Bowl 2022
The 2022 season of the European Ethics Bowl was a special one, as we managed to organise the semi-final in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the final live at the EIB in Luxembourg for the first time.
The number of EEB member institutions grew as new institutions joined the competition. Of the 13 member institutions, 11 organised a national competition and sent their teams to the semi-finals. Finally, nine teams arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to compete for the three places in the final.
After two rounds of tough debates, the teams from Bulgaria, France and Portugal came out on top. And after a two-hour debate in the final at the EIB in Luxembourg, the ISCTE Business School team won the competition.
The organisers of the EEB would like to thank everyone who took part in the 2022 edition of the European Ethics Bowl. Whether as debating students, coordinators, judges or in any other capacity. Thank you for making this season a success. Congratulations to all the teams who successfully represented their countries and universities, and of course congratulations again to this year’s winners.
The Institutional competitions followed the lead of previous years and were organized by each institutional member. The case study titled "Is it ethical to force progress through standardization?" was presented during the launch of EEB 2022.
This year participating students faced two dilemmas presented in the case study. First one was: "Should EU institutions exclude countries and companies that do not comply with the standards from important business activities to force progress?" and the second one was: "Can a group of countries, through collective action, enforce standards that should ultimately lead to a fairer, greener, and more inclusive world, thus imposing a temporary cost on progress to some other countries?".
The 2022 semi-final was EEB’s first live event since its launch in 2020, and featured nine teams from eight European universities, as well as one team from the Alumni Programme of European Investment Bank Institute’s Summer School. The 27 students who made up these nine teams competed for three spots in the final round.
Students debated in two rounds and presented their views on assigned ethical topics related to this year’s overall theme, “Standardising the Business World.”. After brief presentations, they debated with opposing teams, followed by questions from a panel of judges and assessment. During the competition, students had the opportunity to learn and practise the skills they need as European citizens and as global citizens. The ethical issues were presented to the students in the form of specific case studies. The case studies were titled “Are gender quotas really enabling gender equality?” and “Standardization of non-financial reporting”.
Teams from ISCTE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal), Université Paris Dauphine (Paris, France) and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (Sofia, Bulgaria) qualified for the final round. The final round was held on December 9, 2022 and was hosted by the European Investment Bank Institute in Luxembourg.
The organizers would like to thank the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners – ACFE Slovenia and the companies TBA d.o.o., Henkel Slovenia and Atlantic Grupa for their support and sponsorship of the event.
On Saturday, December 9, 2022, the European Ethics Bowl Final competition was organised in Luxembourg and hosted by the European Investment Bank Institute. Teams from three European universities ISCTE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal), Université Paris Dauphine (Paris, France) and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (Sofia, Bulgaria) qualified for the final round.
In the final round of EEB 2022, three teams were given the final case study three days before the competition and had additional two hours of preparation time on the day of the competition. The final case study was titled "Standardisation of higher education". All three teams first presented their views directly to the opposing teams, judges and esteemed guests. Then they had a few minutes to prepare questions for the opposing teams. After that, they debated on the presented topic and answered the questions of the opposing team and the judges. The debate lasted for two hours.
The group of three judges coming from European Investment Bank, Moniflo, and University of Szeged had a very difficult task of evaluating the teams, who in their debating showed a high respect for opposing team members. After an hour of deliberation the judges selected a winner of EEB 2022.
Team from ISCTE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal) won the competition.
Dr. Ana Lúcia Martins, vice dean for teaching and innovation at the ISTE Business School, who observed the students' participation in the competition stated: " Our students' participation in this European competition helped to broaden their "know-how," as they had the chance to put some of the soft skills they learned in class, such a critical mindset, debate abilities, and argumentation ability, to use."
European Ethics Bowl 2021
The 2021 season of the European Ethics Bowl was organized after a successful pilot in 2020. Seven new member institutions joined the competition. Five organized an institutional competition and sent their winning team to the semifinal round.
In the initial months of the pandemic, countries were closing down one after another and city streets were emptier than ever. As everything shut down to combat the pandemic, the impact of human activity on the environment became even more apparent. With this in mind as well as taking into account the increasing number of natural disasters, extreme weather events, and climate change, the decision to choose Environmental challenges as the main theme for EEB 2021 was simple.
Institutional competition was organized by the institutional members. The case study was presented during the launch of EEB 2021 and revolved around the taxation of high-pollution means of transport.
The dilemma faced by the participating teams was: "Should the EU tax high-pollution means of transportation such as short-distance flights within the EU, even though this might restrict the younger generation from experiencing what European integration means?"
Participating teams had one week to present their thoughts and opinions on this dilemma in a 3-5 minute video. During the competition, they discussed their views with the opposing team and answered any questions posed by the jury.
In the semifinals, nine teams from across Europe competed for three spots in the finals. The case study, which was presented to them almost two weeks before the actual competition, dealt with the ethics of pricing. The teams then had one week to create a 3-5 minute video explaining their views on the given dilemma.
The dilemma was: Promote environmental consciousness and still need to pay for measures against climate change. Who shall pay the bill? Shall poor people live in worse environmental conditions?
At the beginning of the debate, they were given videos of the two opposing teams and had 30 minutes to prepare the questions. After the time was up, they debated with the opposing teams and answered the questions posed by the judges.
After an hour of high quality debates, it was difficult for the judges to decide which teams had won each debate. In the end, teams from Prague University of Economics and Business (Czech Republic), Université Paris Dauphine (France) and Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) qualified for the final round of competition.
In the final round of EEB 2021, three teams dealt with the topic of just transition. They received the case study the morning of the competition and had about eight hours to study the topic and prepare for the competition. The teams were presented with the dilemma: "Should the'' just transition'' be a market-based or policy-induced transition, and who should have a voice in this policy-making process. Those who are most affected or those who pay for it?"
In the final round, all three teams first presented their views directly to the opposing teams, judges and esteemed guests. Then they had a few minutes to prepare questions for the opposing teams. After that, they debated on the presented topic and answered the questions of the opposing team and the judges.
After a long deliberation the judges announced the winning team - team Germany from the Goethe University Frankfurt.
European Ethics Bowl 2020
European Ethics Bowl 2020 was a pilot project organised by four founding partners of the EEB.
As the whole world was facing the pandemic COVID -19 and there were more than enough ethical dilemmas involved. It was not too difficult to choose the main theme of the 2020 EEB cases.
In the first phase of the competition, the preliminary round, each founding partner held a separate competition to select its national winner. The case study was the same for all participants and revolved around COVID-19 tracing apps. The dilemma faced by the participating teams was:
"The European Commission is planning to call for tenders to develop a pan-European tracing app. Should the use of this app be mandatory to use for all European citizens?"
Participating teams had one week to prepare and present their thoughts and opinions on the dilemma at hand in a 3-5 minute video. During the competition they discussed their views with the opposing team and answered any questions asked by the judges.
At the semi-finals four teams studied the case that focused on the financial assistance to the companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The dilemma faced by the participating teams was:
"On which ethical considerations should the EU base its allocation of COVID-19 recovery funds to companies and industries across member states?"
The competition format of the semi-finals was the same as the format of the preliminary round. Teams had about a week to prepare and present their views on the given dilemma in a 3-5 minute video. Later they debated with the opposing team during the competition and answer judges questions.
On the morning of the final competition the final two teams were presened with a case that focused on a hot topic of allocation & distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. Teams were faced with three dilemma :
- With the vaccine being available very soon, on which ethical consideration should the population get access to the vaccine?
- Discuss whether there should be a compulsory vaccination for all, or a subgroup of the population.
- To what extent should private businesses be allowed to provide their services only to vaccinated people?
In the final round, the teams presented their views directly to the opposing team, the judges and the esteemed guests. And then, after some time to prepare questions for the opposing team, they debated on the topic presented, answered questions from the opposing team and the judges.