Town-Twinning - an important driver of European integration?
Do we need town-twinning in today’s Europe at all? By Ewa Kurjata, City of Szczecin
A
So, what is town-partnership, or town-twinning?
When you come to think of it, a number of questions can be posted up about twinning. Is town twinning a reality in the Baltic cities or does it rather exist on paper? Do we need formalized ties with other cities at all? What are the biggest challenges and barriers in this kind of collaboration? How has this special relationship evolved over the years in your cities? Aren’t we a big European family yet? Is it still relevant in the times when short-term cooperation projects seem to be prevailing? What is the added-value of town twinning for the citizens and our municipalities? Does it bring any direct benefits them? The answers can be found in our pages, where the Baltic cities willingly share with their rich experiences.
Over the long period of time of its existence, partnership cooperation has proved its worth in efforts to promote understanding between European nations and cultures. Its added value is not only a live intercultural dialogue between ordinary citizens, or the overcoming of prejudices between nations, but also the strengthening of citizens’ participation in public life, support of civic awareness and the integration of the European Union.
significant number of European municipalities are linked to each other through a formal twinning agreement. There are about 200 twinned cities among the UBC members themselves and altogether 532 twin cities in the Baltic Sea Region. The majority of the UBC cities have at least two twin towns, many have even several. St. Petersburg in Russia holds the record for the largest number of partnership arrangements with other communities. All in all, this makes our organization even a larger network, with an enormous potential that may seem not to be fully exploited.
A history in a nutshell Though bilateral relations between European towns date back to Ancient Greece, the concept of town twinning, as an official relationship-builder, started in Europe after the Second World War. European towns decided that developing grassroots, people-topeople relations across old national frontiers, was an essential way of building a peaceful Europe. The idea was simple: repair damaged relationships between France, Germany and the UK. Find towns that suffered during the wars and pair them. Then encourage people from these areas to meet, mix and get along. That’s why town twinning – at its core – is a good and important thing. The distribution of twinned towns within the different countries has not changed much in recent years. Geographical constraints have proven to be very strong, in spite of the fact that the absolute number of twinning links has considerably increased. Today, some 30,000 twinnings bring together towns from over 30 European countries, helping to create a Europe of citizens and covering a wide range of key issues. Twinning gets citizens involved in concrete actions, and promotes the coming together of, and mutual respect between, the peoples of Europe. Today, after more than sixty years, town twinning has grown into a movement linking together towns and citizens from all Europe, and indeed the entire world. 2
Partnership cooperation between towns, in other words town twinning, is a form of long-term international cooperation between local governments. Such cooperation is usually based on an official document such as a partnership agreement or a resolution adopted by the relevant legislative body of the town. Some partners choose informal partnership – informal cooperation without any signed agreement or contract. Some twinnings are made because of political reasons, too.
The town-twinning movement is unique in that it integrates all groups of citizens – from ordinary citizens, experts, businessmen and employees of different institutions, people of different ages, men and women (youth, economically active citizens, senior people, the handicapped, etc.), to civic associations and NGOs. It helps start lasting friendships and build professional links between citizens, organisations, offices, schools, etc., and exchange experiences. It also seems it is very important for the exchange of experiences in different areas of the life of the community, whether this concerns town development, the social area, education, the environment, tourism, or the functioning of self-government. Through cooperation the local governments can support the economic links of their businessmen and entrepreneurs with their counterparts in the partner towns and influence favourably the economic development of their towns and regions. Last but not east, twinning creates a unique opportunity for the citizens of European towns to meet, to get to know each other, exchange ideas, experiences and views and overcome historically conditioned prejudices and mistrust.
So, why do we need town-twinning? For one thing, most know-it-all will tell you that town twinning encourages exchanges of experiences on a variety of issues of common interest. It may also provide opportunities to learn about the daily lives of citizens in other European countries, to talk to them and very often to make friendships. Thanks to the combination of those elements, town twinning has a real potential to enhance mutual understanding, fostering a sense of ownership of the European Union and finally developing a sense of European identity.