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Stemming from the kind invitation of the Euro Mediterranean Scientific and Biomedical Institute (ISBEM), Marco Boaria, ALDA Resource and Development Union Coordinator, and Aldo Xhani, ALDA Project Manager, travelled to Brindisi to meet with Prof. Alessandro Distante and Dr. Prisco Piscitelli in order to coordinate the activities of the joint project COHEIRS.

The meeting took place at ISBEM’s headquarters in Mesagne on 27-28 March 2013 and was an important occasion to discuss the methodology and the action plan of the project whose kick-off is foreseen for April, 15 as well as all relevant details for launching the first activity.

The project brings together 17 partners from 12 different countries in wider Europe and aims at supporting active participation of citizens in the EU democratic life and more specifically in the implementation of the precautionary principles, as detailed in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (EU), through the establishment of citizens panels focused on health and environment. These groups of “civic observers”, duly supported and guided, will monitor the condition of the environment by paying special attention to those violations and misconducts directly or collaterally threatening the public health. At the same time, they will be progressively inscribed and involved in an international network, which will support their efforts, advocate on their behalf at the EU level and coordinate the drafting of recommendations to be addressed to the relevant local, national and European decision makers.

The meeting was also an opportunity to introduce ALDA to a broad range of local actors such as local authorities and civil society organisations committed on active citizenship and environmental issues and to showcase the Europe for Citizens programme. The presentation gave the input for exchanging with the participants on concrete ideas and tools enabling an efficient and effective implementation of the project as well as on several other environmental issues and potential future project ideas. As coordinators of the project, ALDA and ISBEM agreed on a detailed action plan to be submitted later on to the whole partnership for further feedbacks.

ALDA delegation was particularly pleased of being informed of the relevant role that ISBEM plays at the local level in endorsing the local youth and in providing them with a fecund environment for unleashing their potential. Indeed, it is within this context that local youngsters find the tools in terms of knowledge, experience, support and networks for developing a professional life and tackling phenomena of strong impact in the region such as youth unemployment and migration. The two days’ coordination meeting was further enriched by a guided visit of Mesagne’s city centre and accompanied by concrete features of the depopulation issue strongly affecting the area.

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.

Following the 24th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, a partner meeting for the forthcoming opening of the LDA Dnipropetrovsk in the southwestern part of Ukraine was held on March 21.
More than twenty participants gathered, among which a large number of Ukrainian local authorities representatives and the region of Lower Silesia (Poland) certified as a lead partner. Enrico Vannucci, Head of the External Relations and Thematic Priorities Division at the Congress, opened the meeting reiterating the full support of the Congress to this initiative and to the LDAs network. A roundtable provided the opportunity to exchange views, best practices and knowledge, and above all to reflect on more future steps for the establishment of the LDA Dnipropetrovsk.
Speakers included Bartlomiej Ostrowski, Director of the International cooperation and projects Unit for the Lower Silesia Brussels-based office, who shared Lower Silesia’s past and current activities in Ukraine. Also, Dobrica Milovanovic, Deputy Mayor of the city of Kragujevac (Serbia) and Governing Board member of ALDA who could provide an insight on the experience of setting up local democracy agencies and their functioning. Eugen Udod, President of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Parliament, told via a video intervention about Dnipropetrovsk’s strong commitment to the LDA and the work already conducted by Dnipropetrovsk to improve citizen participation and local democracy. Sergiy Malikov, President of the State Foundation for Local Self Government in Ukraine, stressed the importance of Ukraine’s integration to Europe, and the challenges and opportunities which are triggered by this process in general and for the LDA.

LDA Dnipropetrovsk is expected to open this autumn. The opening of an LDA in Ukraine by the end of this year would be particularly meaningful as the potential signing of the Association Agreement between EU-Ukraine is expected to take place in November.

Despite the strong commitment of the current confirmed partners, there is still a need to find more partners and this will be decisive for the speed of the process of opening the LDA. Future initiatives could include the opening of more LDAs in Ukraine especially as it is the most populated of the EaP countries. Additional partners would thus open the doors for future additional cooperation.
In late April Dnipropetrovsk will host a conference on Eastern Partnership organized by the Assembly of European Regions, and this event will also be the opportunity to involve additional partners and discuss operational aspects for the LDA in Dnipropetrovsk.

The European Federalist Movement and its italian branch are closely working with ALDA in promoting further involvement of citizens in a more integrated and political Europe.

The Director of ALDA, Antonella Valmorbida, presented the work of the Association of the Local Democracy Agencies at the XXVI National Congress in Milan on the 23rd of March. The Congress is calling for a “Federal Europe Now !” and reminded the European Citizens Initiative promoted already earlier this year as for a more and concrete actions of Europe in social and economic issues.

ALDA is working with the MFE Italy in particular in Vicenza, where the Movement is hosted. Some common activities are implemented, in particular in disseminating information in the local schools and with public events.

The Congress was prepared on Friday, hosted by the City of Milan, by an event dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Movement in Italy.

Within the framework of the project Un-conventional constitution, led by the Directorate of Youth Policy of the Municipality of Vicenza and focused on a comparative analysis of constitutional charters, a group of 36 young Italians aged 16-30 met with ALDA’s staff of the Strasbourg office on Monday, 18 March.

The meeting took place in conjunction with the plenary session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and was an occasion of visiting ALDA’s stand and being informed on the activities of the organisation.

The Un-conventional constitution project, funded by Regione Veneto (Italy), aimed at fostering the engagement, the social inclusion and active citizenship of young people. It was an opportunity for all the students of the Vicenza high schools to debate and share views on the constitutional texts of Italy, USA, China and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union by applying creative and artistic approaches. The authors of the best analysis were granted the opportunity of a 4 days’ visit to Strasbourg, capital of Europe.

Aldo Xhani, ALDA project manager, welcomed the participants at ALDA’s headquarters in the Council of Europe and provided them with a general overview of the organisation’s main traits and of its role of renowned European stakeholder in the promotion of good governance and citizen participation at the local level. Focus was put on ALDA’s distinctiveness of bringing together local authorities and CSOs and on the wide geographical area covered by its activities such as wider Europe, the Caucasus and Northern Africa.

The introduction was followed by a questions and answers session in which the participants required further information on the possibilities of a major impact as regards the development of democracy in Northern Africa as well as on concrete examples of European projects. As for the latter, the interest focused in particular on European programmes such as Youth in Action and Europe for Citizens, with special attention on the project management cycle. POPEYE, granted by the European Commission in 2012 and whose implementation phase has been launched this March, was showcased as a concrete ALDA project in the youth field, coping with a topic of strong impact such as youth employment in rural areas.

ALDA, in cooperation with European Federalist Movement – Vicenza and the local organisation InsiemEuropa, organises the event “From the Treaty of Rome to the European Citizenship”, taking place at Vicenza City Hall.
The event, organised with the patronage of the Municipality of Vicenza and Veneto Region, wants to celebrate the 56th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, on the 25th March 1957, instituting the European Economic Community and the EURATOM, and launching the European integration’s proces

The main goal of the events is to raise awareness on the European integration process, till nowadays. In particular, great importance will be given to the theme of citizenship, through the presence during the conference of Ms Costanza Margiotta, Professor at the University of Padua.
ALDA Director, Mrs Antonella Valmorbida, will open the conference, presenting the initiative and the commitment of the Association of Local Democracy Agencies in the promotion of the European integration and in the spread of European values. Also the mayor of Vicenza, Mr Achille Variati, will be one of the speakers of the conference.
The conference foresees also a public debate, in order to exchange opinions and ideas, related to European integration.
To the conference all municipalities of the Province of Vicenza, several local authorities of Veneto Region, the new elected Parliamentarian from the province of Vicenza, representatives of the Veneto Region’s Council, the representatives of trade organisations.
The event will be organised in the framework of the initiatives promoted by the Italian Alliance of the European Year of Citizens 2013.

Programme

ALDA Director among the speakers of the Conference “From the Treaty of Rome to the European Citizenship”

The Conference “From the Treaty of Rome to the European Citizenship” was held in the “Sala Stucchi” of Vicenza City-Hall. The event, which obtained the patronage of Veneto Region and of Vicenza Municipality, was organised thanks to the collaboration between ALDA, European Federalist Movement – Vicenza, and the Association InsiemEuropa, and it was one of the initiatives, promoted in the framework of the Italian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens.

To the event, two Regional Council Members, Mr Stefano Fracasso and Mr Giuseppe Berlato Sella, the mayor of Torri di Quartesolo Mr Diego Marchioro, the mayor of Lonigo Mr Giuseppe Boschetto, some delegates of the Municipality of Vicenza, and several representatives of local CSOs participated to the initiative.

The event began with the presence of the Mayor of Vicenza, Mr Achille Variati, who affirmed that the Treaty of Rome launched the European integration, and that we have witnessed to the passage from an “Economic Europe” to a “Europe of Citizenship”, in view of the creation of the United States of Europe.

Besides he stressed that nowadays young people are European, hence the institutions have to believe in Europe. Today the problem is that governments and Member States continue to keep much power and the return to nation-state is a mistake.

Finally he affirmed that the concept of citizenship implies the dialogue, the inclusion and the future: that is why politics and political parties have to reflect and talk about that.

ALDA Director, Mrs Antonella Valmorbida, stated that it is a great error do not debate the issue of the European citizenship, a project that has not been consolidated in Europe yet: if the European integration and the creation of the European Union has been a success, the obstacle is institutional, namely there is a citizenship, but there is not a federation.

Besides, another problem affects the lack of European identity: as ALDA Director argued “When we talk about European identity, we want to base the notion on the EU, whereas the concept is more wide-spreading. How can we exclude the Balkans from Europe? Indeed, the citizenship is related to an institutional level, but the identity concerns other levels”

As the matter of fact, Mrs Valmorbida dwells that since the end of the IIWW we have created the European identity, as a common destiny, the same Weltanschaung. In particular, the European have never approached to continental diversity as a problem: Europe is the area of respect and protection of human rights. Therefore the dimensions of equity, of social-welfare, of mobility, of communication and knowledge of foreign languages is typically European.

Today, at institutional level we do not have a democratic process: indeed we urge a democratisation of the EU Institutions, in particular the role of European Parliament needs to be reinforced and the European Commission should be reformed. As everyone can notice, the EU is a laboratory, which has successfully subdued states’ competencies.

Finally, ALDA Director mentioned the Chart of European Identity: society and education systems should launch a path, in order to put into effect the “Union in the diversity”, as Mr Jacques Delors wished for.

In the last part of the conference there was a public debate, where the attendees insisted on the necessity of promoting the common European identity, creating a common path, on the example of the process of national identity building.

The Metamorphosis Foundation prepared a new animated video about the Macedonian banknotes entitled “Denars”. “Denars” is the most recent and last edition of the series of short animated videos created within the framework of the project “Open Educational Resources Initiative” and “Decentralised Cooperation between the Lower Normandy Region and the Republic of Macedonia”.

The latest video and the two previous videos: “Speed of Sound” – inspired by physics – and “Spelling” inspired by frequent spelling mistakes present educational facts. The three educational videos were made in order to remind us of the importance of education, both formal and informal, and of the important role of the educational resources in the education.
The videos are made in 2D and are available in Macedonian and Albanian language.

For more information on the decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and Macedonia please consult the website of the cooperation or contact Katica Janeva at katica.janeva@aldaintranet.org.

See ЗДЕСЬ  the video.

On 15 March, the Annual National Forum on local self-governance development will be held in Azerbaijan. The focus-point will be put on problems, progresses and perspectives of municipality development in Azerbaijan. This event is organized by BINA – NGO Alliance for Municipality Development and Oxfam GB in cooperation with OSCE Baku Office. It will be a follow-up to the Hearing on Local Democracy in Azerbaijan organised by ALDA, together with the Congress of the Council of Europe in December 2012. Rapporteurs of the Congress will contribute to this National Forum. Jos Wienen, Rapporteur on local democracy in Azerbaijan and Vice-president of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of the Council of Europe, will expose the role of municipalities in the development of decentralised Institutions in Azerbaijan. Rapporteur Wienen’s talk will be followed by the contribution of Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, Rapporteur on regional democracy in Azerbaijan and Member of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of the Council of Europe, who will present the recommendation of the European Congress’s on better re-organisation of municipality work. The event will be held in “Baku” hall of Europe Hotel (Address: Tbilisi Avenue-20) from 9.30 am till 13.30 pm.

BINA has been cooperating with ALDA for three years and became an ALDA member in 2012. This fruitful partnership is particularly relevant in regards to ALDA’s wish to set up a Local Democracy Agency in Azerbaijan.

In the framework of the Grundtvig In Service Training Programme of the European Commission, ALDA organized the training course for participants coming from 6 different countries working on citizen participation and local democracy.

The course was aimed to provide for all candidates a deeper knowledge about the concept of active citizenship and civil dialogues in the European context and increase awareness of the role they can play in improving governance and relationships between citizens and governments at all levels.
The training last 5 days and the participants received practical information on the existing funding opportunities and mainly on the Europe for Citizens Programme. They have focused also on project cycle management and the development of joint project proposals. The training included a visit to the Conference of NGOs in the Council of Europe, the intervention of an expert on the Code of Practice and the contribution of an expert on Strasbourg policies on participatory democracy.
The training was also the opportunity to analyze the main issues of citizen participation and the importance of reducing the gap between institutions and civil society.
For more information please contact alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org