ALDA has moved to a new office in Vicenza. Our new office is very close to the train station and has a wide meeting room, which will be used for trainings and other events.

The Vice President of ALDA, Imislava Gorska, and the Director of ALDA, Antonella Valmorbida, met the International team of the Region Lower Silesia in Poland to further agree on the establishment of the future LDA in Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk. The meeting, in Wroclaw on 4 July, set the ground for identification of partnership, actions and future steps.

On 25 April, the Ukrainian Region of Dnipropetrovsk hosted a conference organized by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) on the opportunities interregional cooperation can offer in the context of the Eastern Partnership.
The event gathered 150 European, national and regional political representatives, among which Lower Silesia and Liege city’s representatives. A partner meeting for the LDA Dnipropetrovsk was part of this event.

The General Assembly of ALDA took place in Pula on the 19th of April 2013, hosted by the Region Istria, Croatia. Around 60 members of the organisation, local and regional authorities and civil society groups, participated in this important event.

As part of its strategy towards the Eastern Partnership countries, ALDA decided to establish a Local Democracy Agency (LDA) in Ukraine, aiming at furthering local self-governance and citizen participation collaboration with local authorities in the region.

The Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA) has decided to set up an annual scholarship in memory of its Honorary President, Gianfranco Martini, who passed away in October 2012.

On 29 January, ALDA held a meeting at the Committee of the Regions together with the Region of Lower Silesia (PL) and the Region of Dnipropetrovsk (UA) to discuss the opening of a Local Democracy Agency (LDA) in Ukraine.

On December 13, 2012 ALDA together with the Congress of the Council of Europe organised a hearing on Local democracy in Azerbaijan, held at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

M. Danny Sriskandarajah, new Secretary General of CIVICUS – The world Alliance for Citizens’ Participation – visited the office of ALDA in Brussels on the 31th of January and met the Director of ALDA, Antonella Valmorbida, and the Policy officer, Peter Sondergaard.

The international conference “Migration and politics”, first international event of the project “My EU: young, equal, inclusive”, will be held in Brescia (Italy) from 1 to 3 February 2013.

The local event VIT in Vicenza took place on the 18th and 19th of January 2013. It was, for the whole community, full and intense days on the topics of twinning and cooperation between communities and cities.

he Governing Board that took place in Vicenza (Italy) on the 17th and 18th of January 2013 was of particular importance for ALDA since it adopted the Strategic Paper 2013/2016.

On January 15, During a meeting which occurred in Belgrade at the Palace of  the Government Mr Alessandro Perelli, representing ALDA Governing Board, introduced to the Serbian Prime Minister, Mr Ivica Dadic.

The Organisations and Associations of the Italian Civil Society, joining the Italian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013, met in Rome, in the “Sala Natali”, by the Permanent Delegation of the European Commission in Italy.

The training seminar „Partnership building for EU integration“ for civil society organisations and local governments, within the project “The European and Our Affairs“, was held in Zavidovici on the 12 December 2012.

On 11th November 2012 in the premises of Evangelic Theological Seminary in Osijek the Opening Conference of the project „Support for networking and twinning at European level“ was held.

The European Federal Movement of Vicenza is now hosted by the Office of Vicenza of ALDA. This cooperation is a concrete step for an intense cooperation that takes place locally between the Italian office of ALDA and the citizens’ belonging to the local section of the MFE.

At the invitation of ALDA’s main Tunisian partner, Lam Echaml , Mr Oriano Otocan and Mr Alessandro Perelli have visited Jendouba for a one-day seminar on “Regional Development, Local Democracy and the New Constitution” that took place on 1st and 2nd December 2012 in Aïn Draham and Jendouba in Western Tunisia.