Mois : mars2021

Nos membres, partenaires et adeptes savent très bien à quel point "l'implication active des citoyens" dans le développement et le maintien de la démocratie est un aspect crucial dans la mission de l'ALDA. Néanmoins, l'ALDA est très consciente des défis auxquels chaque citoyen et communauté locale doit faire face. C'est pourquoi, lors du développement de ses projets, elle a une vision claire des objectifs à atteindre afin de semer les graines du changement.

Dans ce contexte, la présence croissante de la technologie a un impact indéniable dans nos vies et affecte la façon de vivre de chacun d'entre nous, citoyens de l'ère dite numérique.

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).

Intitulé "APProach: Citoyens européens, numérique et participation" , le panel de la Milano Digital Week s'est déroulé pratiquement jeudi dernier. Dès le début, M. Lipparini, conseiller pour la participation, la citoyenneté active et l'ouverture des données, ainsi que M. Maurizio Molinari, chef du bureau du Parlement européen à Milan et Mme Roberta Cocco, conseillère pour la transformation numérique et les services civiques, ont prononcé leur discours d'ouverture, tout en soulignant le grand exemple du projet APProach lorsqu'on parle de numérisation à grande échelle.

En outre, Mme Emanuala Vita de la ville de Milan a également rappelé l'importance du dialogue entre les six villes impliquées dans le projet, ainsi que la participation des citoyens pour le succès d'APProach. De même, M. Paolo Sabatini a mentionné la façon dont la devise européenne "unis dans la diversité" relève d’un guide inspirant pour rendre la vie des nombreux internationaux à Milan plus accessible : la ville stimule la numérisation des services afin d'être plus proche de ses citoyens.

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.

De précieuses pistes de réflexion ont également été données par:

• 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)

Le forum en ligne du réseau thématique régional et la conférence annuelle du réseau organisés par Agence de la Démocratie Locale Subotica et les membres du consortium du projet "Pacte régional pour la jeunesse en Europe" ont eu lieu les 25^, et 26^, mars 2021.

Un large éventail d'intervenants et d'experts venant des pays des Balkans occidentaux ont présenté un aperçu des idées qui peuvent le plus inspirer et transformer notre avenir.

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.

Nos messages, qui viennent du niveau local et sont diffusés dans toute la région, sont vraiment importants.

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”.

Cette activité a été organisée dans le cadre du "Regional Youth Compact for Europe", un projet de trois ans mis en œuvre par la Fondation Center for Democracy et 13 partenaires. Le projet est financé par l'Union européenne et cofinancé par le Balkan Trust for Democracy.

Les 5, 11 et 25 mars 2021, le projet européen APProach a organisé 3 webinaires et invité à la même occasion de grands intervenants et experts pour avoir des débats intéressants et enrichissants sur le thème de la citoyenneté, l'impact du COVID19 sur les outils numériques, les nouvelles formes de participation civique comme le vote électronique et la place de la participation civique dans cette ère numérique.

Merci à tous les participants et aux panélistes : Simon Delakorda, Directeur - Institut pour la participation électronique ; Edoardo Guglielmetti, Conseiller en développement urbain - Commissaire européen et organisations internationales de Bruxelles ; Jean-François Maljean, Chef de Projet - Contrat de Quartier Durable - Commune d'Etterbeek (Administration communale Etterbeek) ; Dr. Lewis Johnson, Président du Conseil d'Administration, CEO et Co-Fondateur - Alelo ; Vincent Morel, DSIN /STIN - Municipalité de Paris (Ville de Paris) ; Francesco Pala, Chef du Département du Secrétaire Général - Association Européenne pour la Démocratie Locale ; Antonella Valmorbida, Secrétaire Générale - Association Européenne pour la Démocratie Locale ; Daniela Vancic, Responsable du Programme Européen - Democracy International ; Emanuela Vita, Coordinateur de projet - Municipalité de Milan (Comune di Milano)

Vous n'avez pas pu participer aux webinaires ? Voulez-vous revoir les webinaires ? Les webinaires seront rendus disponibles sur la page  Facebook du projet APProach ainsi que sur le compte Facebook et Youtube de ALDA.

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Démarré en avril 2018, le projet APProach est cofinancé par le programme Droits, égalité et citoyenneté (REC) de l'Union européenne, visant à faciliter la circulation de l'information vers les citoyens mobiles de l'UE pour qu'ils puissent exercer efficacement leurs droits dans leur ville d'accueil. Le projet APProach s'efforce de combler un vide existant qui limite l'exercice des droits civiques des citoyens en co-créant une plateforme en ligne, la plateforme APProach. Cet écosystème numérique a été conçu avec la participation active des citoyens mobiles de l'UE et de nos villes partenaires : Etterbeek (Belgique), Milan (Italie), de l' Nea Smyrni (Grèce), Paris (France), Vejle (Danemark), Lisbonne (Portugal), Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) et Varsovie (Pologne).

Pour plus d'informations sur le projet APProach

• Suivez-le sur Facebook et Twitter
• Abonnez-vous à sa newsletter ici

Courriel de contact: approachproject@aldaintranet.org 

Dans une période de grands défis et de nouveaux ordres mondiaux, certaines des plus anciennes questions sur l'humanité reviennent à l'esprit : "D'où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?"

La dernière question, en particulier, est fondamentale : Quel sera notre avenir ? Et plus spécifiquement, en ce qui concerne l'Union européenne : comment sera l'avenir de l'Europe, et comment le façonner?  

La Conférence sur l'avenir de l'Europe (CoFoE) a une fonction spécifique et stratégique dans la réponse à ces questions et dans la construction de nos futures étapes.

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. 

Jusqu'à présent, l'ordre du jour de la conférence est tout sauf vide, puisqu'il est déjà rempli de questions cruciales telles que : la lutte contre le changement climatique, une économie qui fonctionne pour les gens, la promotion des valeurs de l'UE, la justice sociale, l'égalité et l'inclusion, ainsi que des questions institutionnelles liées au processus démocratique et à l'établissement de listes transnationales pour les élections.

Il apparaît de plus en plus clairement que, pour atteindre des objectifs durables, efficaces et à long terme, il est extrêmement important d'impliquer les citoyens, et dans ce sens, la Convention de la société civile sur l'avenir de l'Europe joue un rôle fondamental. Comme nous l'avons déjà mentionné dans notre précédente actualitéici) l'ALDA a non seulement été activement impliquée depuis le tout début, mais elle a également été un promoteur acharné et un acteur clé dans l'adhésion à la Convention de la Société Civile. Ainsi, Civil Society Europe, en coopération avec des organisations et associations paneuropéennes, dont l'ALDA, "travaille à la régénération du projet européen autour des valeurs partagées d'égalité, de solidarité, d'inclusion et de démocratie", visant à faire de la Convention mentionnée plus haut "l'interlocuteur de la société civile pour les institutions européennes». Il est clair que cela arrive au bon moment et répond parfaitement aux intentions générales de la Commission d'encourager un partenariat plus fort entre les décideurs politiques européens et la société civile européenne. 

Une fois de plus, l'ALDA est très honorée de faire partie de ce grand moment de changement, en prenant des mesures pour un avenir plus radieux de l'Europe, en mettant à disposition son expertise de longue date, tout en étant épaulée par la contribution de la Commission européenne.

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 climatique 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  l'ADL Géorgie

From the 22nd to the 26^, of February 2021, Metro Adapt joined festival The Nature of Cities, 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” entre 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^, at 15.20 CET, Le’s Secretary General – Antonella Valmorbida – together with Mary Rowe - Présidente de l'Institut Urbain Canadien, 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^,. 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.

Regardez la Vidéo ici

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 pour Literature du projet 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.