Month: March 2021

Our members, partners and followers know very well how “active involvement of citizens” in the development and maintenance of democracy is a crucial aspect in ALDA mission. Nonetheless, ALDA is very conscious of the challenges that every citizen, every local community has to face. That is why, when developing its projects, it has a clear vision on which objectives have to be achieved in order to sow seeds of change. 

In light of this, the growing presence of technology has an undeniable impact in our lives and affects the way of living of each of us, citizens of the so-called digital era.

Therefore, on March 18th, our Secretary General Antonella Valmorbida actively joined the online event promoted by the Metropolitan City of Milan: Milano Digital Week, so that to share ALDA experience and vision in this realm. 

It comes by itself, that when discussing technology and digital tools one cannot forget to mention the APProach project. Lead by ALDA and in partnership with the city of Milan, APProach is a pilot project targeting European mobile citizens, i.e. EU citizens resident in another EU country, to help them have better communication with their welcoming city. Among the main project’s achievements, we have to mention the development of a digital ecosystem aimed to assist and support EU mobile citizens in getting acquainted with their new city and have access to fundamental services. Such a platform has been developed following a participative approach, thanks to the active participation of EU mobile citizens and our partner cities, namely Etterbeek (Belgium), Milan (Italy), Nea Smyrni (Greece), Paris (France), Vejle (Denmark), Lisbon (Portugal), Amsterdam (Netherlands) & Warsaw (Poland). (more in the project here).

Entitled “APProach: European Citizens, digital and participation”, the Milano Digital Week panel took place virtually last Thursday. At the very beginning, Mr. Lipparini, Councillor for Participation, Active Citizenship, Open Data; together with Mr. Maurizio Molinari, Head of the European Parliament Office in Milan and Mrs. Roberta Cocco, Councillor for Digital Transformation and Civic Services gave their opening remarks, while highlighting the great example of the APProach project when discussing digitalisation on a broad scale.

Furthermore, Mrs. Emanuala Vita from the City of Milan also recalled the importance of dialogue among the six cities involved in the project,as well as citizens’ participation for the success of APProach. Similarly, Mr. Paolo Sabatini mentioned how the European motto “united in diversity” is an inspiring guide in making the lives of the many internationals in Milan more accessible: the city is boosting the digitalisation of services so that to be closer to its citizens.

Finally, this event served as a great platform for sharing ideas, perceptions and experiences on the relationship among city, citizens and local realities. As mentioned by ALDA Secretary General, is it important to underline that “the development of democracy is the development of the city itself and as well as its participation”. These three aspects are interrelated and as shown by the APProach project, being part of the city may be facilitated by the digital tools. This is why such projects are today essential for the development of an active and participatory society.

Precious food for thought was also given by:

• Anna Lisa Boni (Segretaria generale di EUROCITIES)
• Leda Guidi (Fondazione Innovazione Urbana Bologna)
• Edoardo Montenegro (Creative Business Cup)
• Jacopo Rangone (PC4U)

To watch the online event click here (italian only)

The Online Regional Thematic Network Forum and the Annual Network Conference organised by the Local Democracy Agency Subotica and the consortium members of the “Regional Youth Compact for Europe” project took place on 25^th and 26^th of March 2021.

A wide range of speakers and experts coming from the Western Balkans countries presented a snapshot of the ideas that can most inspire and transform our future.

Around 50 participants attended virtual meeting, bringing to each panel discussion different experiences and perspectives, such as: the role of the thematic networks, the democratic culture and the regional EU accession challenges. All conferences were streamed daily on our Facebook page.

The “Regional Youth Compact for Europe” project has developed different forms engaging young people in the local decision-making process, but also educational training tools in regards to empowering them and help them getting to the political field. These activities are part of our process to both develop the Balkans Network for Local Democracy, and to exchange best practises; while using expertise of other stakeholders and strengthening regional cooperation. We consider regional cooperation as a tool in bringing us closer to the European Union and in contributing to the reconciliation process in the region.

Our messages come from the local level and spread across the region are really important.

Natasa Vuckovic, Executive director of the Centre for Democracy Foundation and ALDA’s Governing Board member stated: “we have focus on several things before: on local democracy on youth organization, and local organizations. We have focused on making young people influent by educating them, training them, empowering them on the topic of rule of law”.

This activity has been organised within “Regional Youth Compact for Europe”, a three-year project implemented by Center for Democracy Foundation and 13 partners. The project is funded by the European Union and co-funded by Balkan Trust for Democracy.

On the 5th, 11th and 25th of March 2021, the European project APProach has hosted 3 webinars and invited great speakers and experts to have interesting and enriching debates on citizenship, the impact of COVID19 on digital tools, new forms of civic participation as e-voting and the place of civic participation in this digital era.

Thank you to all the participants and the panelists: Simon Delakorda, Director – Institute for Electronic Participation; Edoardo Guglielmetti, Adviser urban development – Brussels Commissioner for Europe and International Organizations; Jean-François Maljean, Chef de Projet – Contrat de Quartier Durable – Municipality of Etterbeek (Administration communale Etterbeek); Dr. W. Lewis Johnson, Chairman of the Board, CEO and Co-Founder – Alelo;  Vincent Morel, DSIN /STIN – Municipality of Paris (Ville de Paris); Francesco Pala, Head of the Secretary General Department – European Association for Local Democracy; Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General – European Association for Local Democracy; Daniela Vancic, European Programme Manager – Democracy International; Emanuela Vita, Project coordinator – Municipality of Milan (Comune di Milano)

Were you not able to participate in the webinars? Do you want to re-watch the webinars? The webinars will be available online on the  Facebook page of the APProach project and on the Facebook and Youtube account of ALDA.

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Starting in April 2018, the APProach project is co-funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme, aiming to facilitate the circulation of information towards EU mobile citizens for them to effectively exercise their rights in their welcoming city. The APProach project is working to fill an existing gap that limits the exercises of citizens’ civic rights by co-creating an online platform, the APProach platform. This digital ecosystem was designed with the active participation of EU mobile citizens and our partner cities: Etterbeek (Belgium), Milan (Italy), Nea Smyrni (Greece), Paris (France), Vejle (Denmark), Lisbon (Portugal), Amsterdam (Netherlands) & Warsaw (Poland).

For more information about the APProach project

• Follow it on Facebook and Twitter
• Subscribe to its newsletter here

Contact email: approachproject@aldaintranet.org 

In a period of great challenges and new global orders, some of the oldest questions for humanity come back to our mind: “where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”

Especially the last inquiry is a fundamental one: What is our future going to be? And more specifically, concerning the European Union: how the future of Europe will be, and how to shape it?  

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has a specific and strategic function in answering those questions and in building up our further steps. 

As also recalled in the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, in light of the impressive number of citizens voting in the 2019 European election (more than 200 million), the message is pretty clear: Europeans are asking for greater participation and want a more active role in shaping the European Union’s future. Thus, the CoFoE has to be the perfect occasion to allow citizens to be part of it, to be – in other words – actively involved. 

So far, the agenda of the Conference is everything but empty, hence is already full of crucial issues such as: fight against climate change, an economy that works for people, promotion of EU values, social fairness, equality and inclusiveness, as well as institutional matters related to the democratic process and the establishment of transnational lists for elections.

It comes every time clearer that, in order to reach sustainable, effective and long-lasting  goals, having citizens involved is extremely important, and in this sense the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe plays a fundamental role. As already mentioned in our previous news (here), ALDA has been not only actively involved since the very beginning, but it has also been an unresting promoter and key actor in joining the Civil Society Convention. Hence, Civil Society Europe, in cooperation with pan-Europeans organisations and associations and ALDA among those, is “working towards regenerating the European project around the shared values of Equality, Solidarity, Inclusiveness and Democracy”,  aiming at making the above-mentioned Convention into “the civil society interlocutor for the EU institutions”. Clearly, this happens at the right moment and it is perfectly responding to the overall intentions of the Commission to encourage a stronger partnership between European policy-makers and European civil society. 

Once again, ALDA is very honoured to be part of this great moment of change, taking actions for the best of Europe’s future, by making its long-lasting expertise at disposal, while being inspired by the European Commission contribution.

The just-ended year marked the 30th anniversary of the EU cooperation programme “Interreg”, after five programming periods, hundreds of projects implemented and changes in the life of over 170 million European Citizens. But what does it stand for? Well, the whole name would be “European Territorial Co-operation” but among Europeans, everyone calls it “Interreg” and is one of the fundamental instruments that the Union has in order to support cross-border cooperation for tackling common challenges, while working together to find common solutions.

Projects developed within “Interreg” are targeted to promote cooperation in different fields: from sustainable energy and environment to research, health and sport. Going a little bit further in details, “Interreg” has three main types of projects: cross border, transnational and interregional. It also represented one of the two goals of the EU Cohesion Policy for the programming period 2014-2020, and it aims to tackle three main goals for EU research and innovation policy, summarised as Open Innovation, Open Science and Open to the World in the next programming period.

To celebrate this important anniversary, “Interreg” has focused on three main topics neighbours, green and youth. Especially latter’s ideas have been collected in the Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy. This work illustrates perceptions as well as expectations that young people have when talking about European Territorial Cooperation.  

From a general perspective, young people express five main concerns and will:

1. Equal opportunities to learn;
2. fair access to decent employment opportunities;
3. more digitally attractive access to information;
4. serious actions on climate change implemented by Local Authorities 
5. involvement in the decision making processes

Building up on these five key messages, Interreg strategies can be adapted, for example:

1. Offering intercultural learning opportunities;
2. Helping in spreading job opportunities across borders;
3. Using more youth-oriented calls
4. Prioritizing online meeting to physical ones so that to reduce CO2 emissions 
5. Financing “people-to-people” projects

If you want to know more about it, check this news weekly! We are going to find out more about them step by step.

• Recommendation number 1
• Recommendation number 2
• Recommendation number 3
• Recommendation number 4
• Recommendation number 5
• Recommendation number 6
• Recommendation number 7
• Recommendation number 8
• Recommendation number 9
• Recommendation number 10
• Recommendation number 11
• Recommendation number 12

Great news from Kutaisi “the city of roses”

We are delighted to hear that Mr. Ioseb Khakhaleishvili, who has been our delegate from LDA Georgia, has been elected as major of Kutaisi.

Last week ALDA, together with Governing Board Member Ms. Shorena Khukhua, met Mr. Khakhaleishvili to congratulate him on this great new position.

ALDA has always had a great and long-lasting cooperation with the city of Kutaisi, and we are more than motivated and glad to keep on working together, while sharing stories of success and reciprocity.

We wish him best of luck and we are looking forward for future projects together.

If you are willing to know more about the promotion of local democracy in Georgia, please visit  LDA Georgia

From the 22nd to the 26^th of February 2021, Metro Adapt joined The Nature of Cities Festival, a virtual festival that engaged 2300 people from 72 countries. 18 plenaries, 180 seed sessions and field trips engaged stakeholders from the whole globe into discussions on the future of our cities.

The Metro Adapt project joined the international event as one of the main co-organizers, proposing a wide variety of activities and sessions, disseminating the project results and generated knowledge and establishing linkages and synergies with stakeholders from all over the world. Participants were able to visit Metro Adapt exhibitor booth, where it was possible to consult the project outputs and information, interacting and learning with the project partners.

This has been our line-up within the Festival:

• February 23rd at 10.15 CET Metro Adapt organized the first workshop
• February 24th at 10.15 CET Metro Adapt organized a second session “Nature Based Solutions in urban areas: a virtual field trip in the Milan Metropolitan Area”.
• February 24th at 15.20 CET, the conversation, during a Plenary session, “Participation, Local Democracy, and Sustainable Cities” between Antonella Valmorbida, ALDA’s Secretary General, and Mary Rowe, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute.
• February 25th at 15.30 CET Metro Adapt organized a third session “Covenant of Mayors: The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan in Metropolitan Areas”. Workshop released in Italian.
• February 25th at 18.00 CET, the last Metro Adapt session “Science Communication through theatre and the arts: The example of Pale Blue Dot” a talk with Andrea Brunello, actor and Director.

All sessions have been very participative and with full engagement. The first workshop, “Nature Based Solutions as a mean to boost urban climate change adaptation” created a space of dialogue among the key stakeholders which could be potentially involved in the implementation of sustainable strategies to limit the impact of climate change. The workshop counted on the participation of Goncalo Canto Moniz, project coordinator of the Horizon 2020 URBINAT Project, who shared the project generated knowledge about nature-based solutions benefits and social, economic and environmental challenges.

On the following day, participants had the chance to travel 360° inside the Metro Adapt project using a google earth map, with a focus on the pilot interventions implemented in Masate and Solaro municipalities. On February 24^th at 15.20 CET, ALDA’s Secretary General – Antonella Valmorbida – together with Mary Rowe – President of the Canadian Urban Institute, got virtually together in the session “Participation, Local Democracy and Sustainable Cities” during a Festival’s Plenary session to talk about the role of local communities as key actors for cities and urban areas’ sustainability. The following day, Metro Adapt organized a third session “Covenant of Mayors: The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan in Metropolitan Areas”. The workshop was released in Italian and it was the occasion for a positive exchange of ideas and reflections between representatives of different metropolitan areas about the implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP).

The last Metro Adapt session “Science Communication through theatre and the arts: The example of Pale Blue Dot” took place on February 25^th. The workshop was joined by Andrea Brunello actor and director from Arditodesio Theatre Company who talked about the Pale Blue Dot show, a production by the Jet Propulsion Theatre that aims at spreading the message about climate change through theatre and art. During the session, participants had the chance to interact with the director, asking questions about the show, reactions from the public and further projects of the company related to the connection of scientific data and theatre.

Thanks to everyone who joined us!

Read more on Participation, Local Democracy and Sustainable Cities event

Intercultural dialogue is a powerful tool and it can be perceived as an instrument of prevention and conflict resolution. Besides, one may consider it as a process, through which communities, using history, the past and cultural heritage as key points, become able to get closer to each other.

Having that in mind, we have created this video to outline the importance of intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding for the development of the region.

The video is intended to send a message as far as living together peacefully and constructively concerns without forgetting the multicultural world in which we are in. Finally it is also meant to develop a sense of community and belonging.

Watch the Video here

The video is financially supported by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Program Normandy for Peace of the Region Normandy.

Urban walking tour focusing on eco-museum/community museums

The House of Ivo Andric, the only Nobel Prize winner for Literature from Yugoslavia, is now available for visitors through a guided tour. As partner in charge for promotional activities, Local Democracy Agency Montenegro established partnership with one of the most prominent touristic agencies in Herceg Novi – Trend Travel, specialised in organising thematic tours in Herceg Novi and surroundings.

Tours start from Andric’s house: there, visitor can appreciate the permanent exhibition about his life, while getting more information on the house itself thanks to the electronic totem. Besides, they can also find out other Points of Interest within the eco-museum/community museums. The latter represent the cultural/historical, natural and immaterial heritage.

The “magic atmosphere” of Herceg Novi that attracted the famous writer and his wife, as well as artists and creative people such as: Zuko Dzumhur; Branko Copic; Mihailo Lalic; Petar Lubarda and Vojo Stanic, still inspires the citizens of Herceg Novi to create beautiful things for the community and for the visitors. Being surrounded by culture, architecture, colourful nature, sea and mountains spurs people in crafting artistic products, paintings and handcrafts while producing great pieces of literature; without forgetting the culinary and sporting side.

This package is available as a two-hours guided walking tour, and will be promoted via social networks and, considering the COVID-19 situation, one can find on-line tourist fairs. In the upcoming future, the service will be offered via touristic sub-agents’ network and online.