Mois : octobre2013

ALDA, Lev Sapieha Foundation, and the International Consortium “Eurobelarus” participated in the Civil Society Consultation on 25th September at the EU Delegation office in Minsk, Belarus.

The three associations strongly support the approach given by the new programme CSO/LA in Belarus, which has a great potentiality in supporting the development of local and regional authorities.

With a statement released on 3rd October, they called for several concrete actions in support of local governance and civil society participation in the country:

• The adoption and ratification of the principle of the European Charter on Local Self Government and support the work of the Congress of the Council of Europe in this matter
• The use of the Code for Good Practices on Civil Participation in Decision Making, developed by the Conference of the International Non-Governmental Organizations of the Council of Europe
• Concreate actions to address local authorities autonomy and competences, such as a first development of fiscal decentralization
• Focus on projects proposed by the local authorities which would involve substantially civil society groups in all the phases of its development
• Support the involvement of the European Partners in the programmes.

Read the full statement (.pdf)

ALDA has organised the Grundtvig training course on Citizens Participation and Funding Opportunities to Support Participative Initiatives. It will take place in Strasbourg, France, from 18th to 22nd November – from Monday to Friday.

The course will address challenging themes regarding the role of citizens in the local, national and international decision-making process. There will also be a part concerning funding opportunities for projects related to citizens initiatives.

In particular, the course will focus on target areas of intervention and funding opportunities of the new EU Programming period (2014-2020).

The requested participation fee is 500 €, which does not include travel, accommodation, and board.

In case you are interested in attending the course or would like more information, please contact us at this e-mail: alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org

See the Information Package (pdf)

ALDA is among the participants of the 5th Annual meeting of the Civil Society Forum for Eastern Partnership, taking place in Chisenau, Moldova, on the 4th and 5th of October 2013. At the event will participate more than 250 NGOs from the EU and from the six EaP countries (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia).

The Forum will identify a common strong message from the Civil Society sector to the Summit of the Heads of States on the Eastern Partnership which is coming up soon, in November 2013.

The Association of Local Democracy Agencies support two resolutions in particular. The first one is expressed by the Subgroup on Local Government and Public Administration Reform and it proposes to support the process of fiscal decentralisation and territorial approach to development in the area, based on a multistakeholder and good governance approach (Resolution.pdf).

Further more, together with the European Movement International, it proposes to further strengthen the EU representation at the Forum and in decision making process – with the possible establishment of EU Platform (for the time being the Platforms are only those of the 6 EaP).

“We strongly believe that the partnership of the EU towards East is a fundamental asset of the Union and beneficiary for both communities in terms of social development, democracy and sustainable and fair economic growth” confirm Antonella Valmorbida, the Director of ALDA, and Diogo Pinto, the Secretary General of the European Movement International”.

ALDA is among the founder of the CSF for EaP in 2009. Antonella Valmorbida sit in the Steering Committee in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 (as EU coordinator) and was co-chair of the Forum for the last mandate. Since then, ALDA is coordinating the Subgroup of the WG 1 on Local Government and Public Administration Reform.

ALDA, Lev Sapieha Foundation, and the International Consortium “Eurobelarus” participated in the Civil Society Consultation on 25th September at the EU Delegation office in Minsk, Belarus. The issue discussed in the meeting is of our great interest for our associations, and represent the core of our common activities in the country and in the Eastern Partnership.

ALDA and Lev Sapieha Foundation have been working since its establishment to develop local authorities and civil society groups in order to let them work together for a better local governance. The International Consortium “Eurobelarus” is a member of ALDA since 2012 and takes active part in the development of Civil Society in Belarus as well as in other EaP countries.

Stemming from the kind invitation of Mr Loenard Soare, Councillor of the Arges County Council and President of the Montain Community Iezer Muscel Association and Ms Mihaela Neagoe, public officer at the regional council, the ALDA delegation represented by Marco Boaria and Aldo Xhani, visited the Arges County Council on 30 September 2013. The meeting was an opportunity for introducing ALDA to the County’s members such as the Vice-president Mr Polexe Constantin and several regional councillors as well as to the delegation of the Embassy of Romania to the UK headed by Mr Mihai Delcea, the delegation of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce headed by Mr Graham Carnie and the Arges County Businessmen Association, represented by its director Mr Alexandru Serban.

The event was an occasion for showcasing ALDA’s renowned role in promoting good governance and citizen participation at local and regional level and for strengthening ALDA’s presence in Romania. The focus was put on the several possibilities of further cooperation between ALDA and Romanian local and regional authorities, in particular through partnerships within European projects. ALDA’s multiannual expertise in this field was brought in by showcasing successful projects granted by different European programmes. A questions and answers session was then held in order to give participants the possibility of enquiring about further opportunities of cooperation.

As side event of the meeting, the ALDA delegation encountered the government prefect in the Arges region Mr Cristian Soare. He welcomed ALDA’s active role in Romania and its effectiveness in providing local and regional authorities as well as organisations of the civil society with a platform for developing cooperation with other actors from across Europe. Both Mr Mihai Delcea and Mr Soare encouraged ALDA to strengthen its activities in the country by providing Romania with further means of development.

Marco Boaria, Resource and Development Unit Coordinator and Aldo Xhani, project manager, participated and contributed to the success of the third international seminar, within the project TYEC, focused on “The social impacts of youth unemployment in the national and local context”. The event took place in Bucharest on 1 October and was an occasion for bringing together renowned stakeholders active in the youth employment field to discuss together on effective measures to tackle youth unemployment.

The seminar was based upon two pillars. The first panel gathered together local and regional authorities’ representatives, national agencies, youth organisations and academic institutions in order to share successful practices unburdening social obstacles to youth. The panel addressed the issue of “Youth unemployment and the risk of social exclusion: European and National perspectives” and saw the participation of Ms Estèle Rival, representative of Pays Vichy Auvergne, Ms Raluca Tudor from the Romanian Municipalities Association (AMR), Mr Mihai Butu, Polytechnic University Bucharest, Mr Irinel Ciocioc, adviser of the Youth Minister in Romania, Ms Tudorita Bistreanu, director of the Romanian National Agency for Employment, Mr Ciprian Iliescu, president of the Cartel ALFA Youth Organisation, Mr Florian Marin, President of the BNS Youth Organization and Mr Angelo Pagliara, youth policy adviser at UIL. The panel promoted the need of a stronger effort to tackle youth unemployment both at national and European level and stressed the importance of acting on the territory, thus highlighting the key role of local and regional authorities as the actors in closest contact with their citizens and therefore the ones that better know their needs.

The second panel brought together representatives of trade union associations from the partner countries (France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Romania) to discuss on “The social impact of youth unemployment: the role of social dialogue”. Among the others, Mr Patrick Itschert, ETUC Deputy General Secretary, Mr Vito Marchiani, General Secretary UIL Toscana and Mr Carles Fons Poquet, representative of the Youth Committee of Confederacion de Comisiones Obreras contributed to the outcomes of the discussion.

ALDA had a key role in the event: Aldo Xhani opened the session and triggered the debate by presenting the research on “Counting the costs: the social impacts of youth unemployment in the national and local contests into the partner countries”. ALDA also brought in the perspective of local authorities thanks to key speakers coming from its network such as Ms Estèle Rival from Pays Vichy Auvergne and Ms Raluca Tudor, representative of the Romanian Municipalities Association (AMR).

Within the framework of the project “ECRC – European Civil Resource Centres”, funded by the programme Europe for Citizens and aimed to create a network of centres throughout Europe to support and improve the participation of potential beneficiaries to the programme, ALDA developed a set of workshops to launch the Italian centre in the territory of Vicenza. Several local citizens were informed about the services provided by the centre, which in Italian takes the name of CREC – Centro Risorse Europeo per il Cittadino and which is hosted in the premises of ALDA.

In particular, ALDA kicked-off the centre’s activities through an Open Day event, held in the city centre of Vicenza last 8 September. The event was attended by the local community and aimed at providing participants with relevant information on the objectives and activities of the body.

Furthermore, in order to increase the visibility of the centre at local level, ALDA organised three local workshops addressed to municipalities and CSOs willing to develop projects under the Europe for Citizens programme, both with and without experience. The specific objective of the events was to showcase the support that the centre may provide to LAs and CSOs within the framework of the Europe for Citizens programme. Several hints about the future programming period have also been given.

The first workshop took place Saturday 21st September, in the city centre and in synergy with the day dedicated to Volunteering, which is one of the most important expressions of active citizenship. The second and the third workshops took place respectively on 26 and 27 September in the new headquarter of ALDA in Vicenza, in coincidence with the inauguration of the office.

Le Mouvement Européen International held its annual Heads of Office meeting yesterday, Monday 1st October, which was attended by over 30 participants from across the continent. Members had a chance to speak to one another to discover best practices and catch-up during a full day meeting that was held at the Headquarters of CESI in Brussels. There were 3 speaker sessions that focused on re-establishing trust in the European Social Model, the upcoming EP elections, and what the next iteration of the MFF means for civil society funding.

ALDA’s senior expert Biljana Zasova, Project Co-ordinator and Project manager for the France/Balkans and Lower-Normandy/Macedonia projects attended and represented the association.

Questions were asked on how we should move civil society organisations forward in the 21stcentury. Speakers included representatives from the 3 main European political parties (EPP, PES, ALDE Party) who are all EMI members, as well as representatives from Business, ETUC, and the European Commission.

A delegation from the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia, led by its Vice President Deli Andor presented the “Festival of Mind”, in Trieste, to the Vice President of ALDA Alessandro Perelli.

The Festival of Mind is a competition for scholars, and for the 2013 edition the region Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Region of Kiev (Ukraine), of Olomuc (Czech Republic), of Styria (Austria), and the Province of Lodz (Poland) have been selected. The festival will last until May 2014 and consist of a competition among students or groups of students, who will have to create compositions using the 24 pieces of the “puzzle of Doris”, invented in Vojvodina.

Every image created by the students will be photographed and judged by an international jury. In Trieste, the Liceo Classico Dante Alighieri and the Istituto d’Arte Enrico e Umberto Nordio will participate.

On top of the Vice President Deli Andor, the Serbian delegation included the under Secretary to instruction Mato Groznica and the inventor of the puzzle Zdravko Zivkovic. They visited the two institutes in Trieste.

‘The initiative is part of the intense collaboration between the regions Friuli Venezia Giulia and Vojvodina, started in 2006 with the agreement signed by the Presidents Illy and Paitic, which recently led to the funding of the project “Eurostart”, which is being implemented, with interventions in the fields of energy, culture and mental health.