The aim of the conference was to gather local authorities and civil society representatives from Europe and the Balkans to discuss the contribution of town-twinning and civil society networking to the European integration process and the building of a European identity. The conference was attended by around 60 representatives of civil society and municipalities from Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, France, and the United States. BCSDN member Pandeli Theodhori and BCSDN Executive Office volunteer Jeffrey Treisbach were also in attendance.
The conference was opened by representatives of ALDA, the Delegation of the European Commission, Skopje municipal government, European Civic Forum, and CRPRC Studiorum. These participants set out the goals for the day and then four presentations were given about town-twinning. Emilie Blondy of CEMR gave examples of the benefits of town-twinning including influencing European legislation and strengthening local and regional governance. Following Ms. Blondy’s presentation, Marta Petrova of RAM Central Stara plania (Bulgaria) gave insights on town-twinning in her country. David Lopez of European Civic Forum discussed his organization’s views on citizenship, civil dialogue, and civic engagement. He referred to this as “Plan ‘C’ for Europe” and commented that the European Commission actually was more supportive of a “Plan ‘D’” which had no hope of improving civil dialogue. The final presentation of the morning session was given by Ivana Tomovska and Biljana Kotevska of CRPRC Studiorum. Following these opening presentations, the audience was invited to contribute their experiences with town-twinning and several representatives of municipalities gave insights. The most common concern was the need for a more organized approach to twinning in the Balkan region. The concept was described by one representative as “haphazard.”
The afternoon session was broken into two workshops, one titled “Networking and Cooperation Amongst Local Authorities in Twinning Activities” and the second titled “Networking and Cooperation Amongst Civil Society Organizations in the EU/Balkans.” In the second workshop, various NGOs and civil society organizations were present and they shared their experiences with network participation and working with the European Commission. The main complaint was about a lack of funding for organizations. The conference ended with a plenary session in which the lessons learned from both workshops were discussed.
There were several lessons learned from the one-day conference. On the topic of town-twinning, it is evident that most municipalities that were represented had experience with the concept but in nearly every case it was self-funded. It was suggested that these municipalities pursue the Europe for Citizens program, which offers funding for town-twinning activities, but it was also mentioned that there may be problems with the application procedure as the application itself is not offered in Macedonian. As for civil society, four concrete lessons learned were offered: 1) continue the thinking-process into solving problems; 2) evaluate twinning programs in the context of networking CSOs; 3) discuss the need for democratic development and not just financial need; and 4) governments should translate programs so they are available in the local language to all citizens (referring specifically to EC-sponsored programs).