The Greek association KMOP (Kendro Merimnas Oikoyeniaskai Pediou) will organise on 15th and 16th March an event in Korydallos and Piraeus in the framework of the project VIT- Very important twinning, Volunteering in town.
The event in Greece will be the second organised in the project VIT (after the one organised in Valencia on March 2nd and 3rd by Recreatura) and is part of a total of 18 workshops, which will be held until June 2013.
This project aims at creating a platform involving different types of stakeholders for debate, action and reflection on how citizens may enhance governance in Europe. At the same time, the project aims at revitalising existing town-twinning relations of the partner towns and initiate new twinning.
The first day of the workshop will be dedicated to the presentation by local NGO’s of their volunteering actions and to a discussion on the role of volunteerism and its impact in society. The second will consist on a visit to KMOP’s Day Care Center “Ariadni” in Piraeus.

From 19 to 21 of March a Danish delegation will be visiting Nis, Serbia, hosting city of the LDA Central Southern Serbia. The Danish City oh Aarhus, with its International Office, department of Employment, is the lead partner of the LDA CSS. The purpose of the visit is to observe the implementation of the Danish-Serbian projects in Nis.
The delegation will be composed of the Danish Ambassador in Serbia, Mette Kjuel Nielsen, the Alderman Department of Social Affairs and Employment of the Municipality of Aarhus, Hans Halvorsen, the Director of the Department, Erik Kaastrup-Hansen, Flemming Meyer, representative of City of Aarhus, and the President of ALDA Per Vinther.
The delegation will visit Job Center Nis which is a project funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore the delegation has scheduled meetings with the mayor of Nis, National Employment Service, the Socio-Economic Council and Employment Council of Nis. Delegation will also include a visit to Aarhus International Office in Nis and Local Democratic Agency LDA Nis which have been cooperating closely since late 2010. The aim of the visit is additionally to improve and strengthen the cooperation between LDA, Aarhus and Nis. During this visit an exhibition presenting Aarhus and Danish history and culture will be opened for the public in Nis. This exhibition is being organised by Aarhus International Office in Nis and Local Democratic Agency LDA Nis in cooperation with Business Law School and Preschool institution from Nis.

Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, last president and vice president of ASAEL, the Aragonese Association of Local Authorities, that was dissolved in late 2009 swept away by a scandal, have been sentenced to pay 30.180 euro to ALDA, to cover the debts made when they were members of the Governing Board of the Association.
The Court of First Instance considered them responsible for the non-payment of the sum due to ALDA for the realisation of European projects in which were both partners.
In the photo: Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida during a press conference in Zaragoza
“ALDA had a contract with ASAEL who did not honoured it. We are pleased that the court has agreed with us and that we should be able to recover our funds”. Stated President and Director of Alda, Per Vinther and Antonella Valmorbida. “The judgement sets out clearly the responsibilities and behavior to be expected of locally elected officials. ALDA has always promoted accountability and transparency in local governance, but it is the population of Aragon who should benefit the most from this judgment on the merits of this unacceptable behavior by its locally elected officials”.
Asael was leader of some European projects in which were partners, with ALDA, other European public institutions and associations.
After developing their ordinary activity, the Aragoneses association did not disburse the agreed amount to its partners, in particular ALDA, that reported the case to the Court.
The judge has estimated the reasons presented by the Attorney Charlez Landivar and by the Lawyer Victor Sanz Pomar, representing Alda, against Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, and has condemned them to the payment of the debts, amounting to 30.180 euro, legal interest and costs.

The members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, express their deep concern over the recent diplomatic conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.
The representatives of the Belarusian civil society, members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum are convinced that the solution to the essentially important issues of reforming and modernisation of Belarus and turning it back to the network of the European communities, may lay the basis for negotiations and overcoming the existing conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.

Read the full statement in EN, RU, BY.

The increased involvement of Local Authorities (LAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in EU development policy generates the need for the establishment of a new alliance among them in order to capitalise and improve their experiences and methods of actions.
On 28th of March 2012, in the Committee of the Regions premises in Brussels, will be launch WTD – Working Together for Development with the International Conference ”Local authorities and civil society: a partnership for development”.

During the last two decades, LAs gained a significant expertise in terms of conflict prevention, decentralisation and confidence building in development, revealing themselves as real catalysts for change. In strong cooperation with CSOs, LAs confirmed decentralised cooperation methodology as one of the most relevant tools to promote a shared and bottom-up approach to development, inside and outside Europe.
ALDA, which has been one of the first European actors promoting this practice through the network of Local Democracy Agencies, is launching a new alliance between LAs and CSOs interested in having a voice heard in Europe as for policy making about development cooperation.
We will be pleased to involve your institution or organisation in this new challenging European endeavour, thus the president of ALDA is honoured to invite you all in Brussels.
The Conference will gather the main European stakeholders in the field of development and aims at debating on the opportunities LAs have to work together with CSOs to foster a bottom up approach to development and to plan a join strategy to make their efforts more efficient.
WTD, Working Together for Development, is a multi-annual development alliance granted within the framework of the European Commission NSA & LA Programme in the Objective III.
It has been conceived by ALDA in cooperation with 21 international partners and associates coming from 16 different countries from enlarged the wider Europe.
It involves both Associations of Local Authorities and NGO networks, and aims at improving their capacities to act as development agents inside and outside Europe, in partnership with EU and national institutions. WTD adopts a multi-stakeholder approach and focuses on creating strong partnerships between Local Authorities and NGOs. It has a special particular focus on Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

For more information contact Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, at alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org or visit the website: www.wtd-alda.eu

Will take place in Strasbourg (1-2 March 2012) the first study visit of the project “Network for Community Development with Marginalised Social Groups”, part of the Lifelong Learning Programme – Grundtvig, coordinated by ALDA and its partners, in the light of the strong impact community organisations have in the development of their own societies.
The project aims to facilitate the mutual learning of innovative tools of community development that tackle the problems of marginalised social groups in different regions of Europe.
The first study visit foresee the organisation of to the event “Round Table – Active Citizenship: Tools for Community Development” in the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg on 1st March 2012 (9h30 – 13h00). The event will be attended by the international partners and local NGOs involved in community development programmes.
The round table will be followed by a visit to the Municipality of Strasbourg and a meeting with Mr Luc Scheeck from the Department for Local Democracy and Neighbourhood Offices who will present the activities of the City of Strasbourg in this regards.
On Friday, 2 March, the participants of the study visit will meet Mr Robert Rustem from the European Roma Forum of the Council of Europe, Mr Dmitri Marchenkov, Secretary of the Current Affairs Committee, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Ms Jutta Gützkow and Ms Jane Crozier-Vincent from Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity of the Council of Europe. During the meeting the activities of the Council of Europe regarding Roma and Travellers, as well as the cooperation of the Organisation with NGOs, will be presented.
The main goal of the event will be sharing knowledge and experiences that attending associations gained throughout their daily activities in their specific field of intervention. This will thus contribute to promote best practices that can be applied in other sectors and in different local contexts.

In the period from 23 to 25th of February a Delegation composed by partners of LDA Zavidovici from Alba (Italy) visited Zavidovici with intention to do the evaluation of the common projects that are implemented in Zavidovici.
The main attention was on the project „A safe place for victims of domestic violence: accompaniment to autonomy and development of local resources“, financed by Municplaity of Alba and Piemonte Region.
The project aims to develop initiatives to support victims of domestic violence and against the culture that produces and legitimises violence itself, through the action of the local network active for over three and a half years and of the “Sigurno Mjesto”, a newly established association.
The main objectives are:

• Implement measures to prevent domestic violence and raise awareness about the gender relations with the young people of the territory;
• Provide services to accompany the victims of violence;
• Develop initiatives to support the economic independence of victims of violence;
• The strengthening and development of the local network against domestic violence involving inside the Association “Sigurno Mjesto” (“A safe place”, born from the projects supported by the Piemonte Region).
  Besides this there have been discussed future activities where is involved territory of Alba as: exchange between kindergartens, summer camps for children “Strani Vari”, youth exchanges and others.
  Delegation has been composed by: Nicola Conti (Consorzio Socio Assistenziale-Alba Langhe e Roero), Gianna Pasquero (Ser.T. Asl CN 2 – Alba Bra), Maria Perino (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” – Dipartimento di Ricerca Sociale), Cecilia Madau (Ufficio Pace Alba), Simona Sordo (LDA Zavidovici), Alice Riccardi (Associazione Strani Vari Alba), and Agostino Zanotti (president of LDA Zavidovici). Municipality of Alba is partner of LDA Zavidovici since its establishment in 1996.

BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipality Development with which ALDA has been cooperating for the past two years, has conducted the monitoring of the correspondence of municipality institution in Azerbaijan to the requirements of the European Charter on Local Self-Governments.
As a result, BINA presented a Monitoring report entitled “Assessment of conformity of organisational and operational aspects of municipalities in Azerbaijan with principles and requirements of European Charter”.
The following step is the expected visit in Azerbaijan of the monitoring group of the European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

It is already 12 years since the municipalities started to operate for the first time in Azerbaijan and around 30 pieces of legislation have been enacted to regulate the operations of municipalities during this period. Along with the laws and other normative acts (presidential decrees, decisions of Cabinet of Ministers, etc.), the European Charter of Local Self-Government has become an integral part of the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic. This international document entered in force through the adoption of the law of 25th December, 2001 on the “approval of European Charter of Local Self-Government”, which entered into force from the 1st August 2002.
By joining the Charter in December 2001, Azerbaijan undertook various commitments regarding better self-governance in the country. Over the past period, a number of laws and other normative acts have been enacted establishing the legislative basis of forming and developing local self-governance in the country, three municipal elections held, as well as, some measures taken to establish and develop municipalities in practice.
This report is based on the monitoring which tried to determine the extent to which the legislative basis of local self-governance and municipalities already established in the country are in line with the principles and requirements of the Charter.
Upon developing this report, the monitoring group composed of the member organizations of the Alliance reviewed European Charter of Local Self-Government, explanatory “notes” of Council of Europe’s experts to the provisions of the Charter, relevant documents developed by various institutions of Council of Europe dealing with various aspects of local self-governance, recommendations and commentaries of European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Minister’s Committee and other institutions aimed at resolving specific problems of local self-governance in both Azerbaijan and other countries, held the expertise of laws forming the legal-normative basis of municipalities’ operations in Azerbaijan, and studied existing various challenges associated with municipalities.
The future perspectives of local self-governance reforms depend on the initiatives and attempts of the government, municipal associations, civil society institutes and international organizations.

BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipal Development, was established in May, 2009 by NGO operating in the field of better local self-governance in Azerbaijan. The Alliance, which is in the process of becoming member of ALDA, primarily seeks to develop and implement sound strategies on better local self-governments (municipalities) and coordinate the efforts of and collaboration between national NGOs in order to strengthen the organisational and institutional capacity of municipalities. The Alliance’s mission is to support decentralisation and democratic processes.
The activities of the Alliance include round tables on a range of local self-governance issues, journalist studies to report on municipal problems via Media broadly, reviewing present situation of local self-governance in Azerbaijan, developing policy papers on various local self-governance problems and making recommendations to the government and carrying out advocacy campaigns of suggestions made. Further information about the Alliance can be found on www.localdemocracy.az.

The Local Democracy Agency Armenia is on the move. The LDA partners have appointed David Sarkis Dolmadjian as Delegate at the end of partner meeting that took place in Brussels.
The new delegate will be in the LDA office in Gyumri next week and he will be assisted by ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida.
Paula Rauzan, Delegate of the LDA of Sisak, will stay in Gyumri three weeks assisting him for the launch of the local LDA.
In the pictures: the ribbon cutting at the LDA headquarters
The LDA Armenia will have all the support and assistance of ALDA network, especially from the other LDA and in particular from the other LDA in southern Caucasus, based in Kutaisi, Georgia.
“I am looking forward to new synergies, especially in the Caucasus, for the whole network” stated Mrs Antonella Valmorbida.
It is possible contact LDA Armenia to the email address: ldaarmenia@aldaintranet.org
Partners of LDA Armenia are Rhône-Alpes Region (France), Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy), International Committee For The Development of Peoples CISP (Italy), Union of Communities of Armenia, Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development (Armenia), Journalists’ Club Asparez (Armenia), the Municipalities of Gyumri, the host city, and Ijevan. The role of the international partners will be to provide core financial support, participate in activities where they have the skills and capacities, to encourage their own partners to participate in the work of the LDA and to promote the work of the LDA in their own community and encourage wider participation.
Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia, situated in the North of the country and has been selected as host since it will provide a good basis to allow the LDA to work on a national level.
The Municipality of Gyumri provides an office and rooms for the LDA in the City Hall.
The LDA will facilitate the participation of civil society in the decision-making process at the local level, increase the interest, awareness and capacities of citizens to take part in the decision-making process at the local level and increase the awareness and skills of the local communities and local authorities to address the needs of their citizens. The LDA will support capacity building of civil society and local authorities and it will implement its activities at the local level with trainings, study visits and other participative methods.
Acting as a promoter of democracy and local self-government, the Local Democracy Agency will also promote human rights and sustainable development. The realisation of all objectives will be reached by implementing projects with local authorities and NGOs using the international partners support. The LDA will aim to serve as a bridge between Europe and Armenia and will bring Armenian practice to Europe and European experience to Armenia.
Finally the LDA will also work to ensure cross border cooperation in South Caucasus and will work to promote peace and understanding in the South Caucasus region.