Месяц: 1ТП1Ц

ALDA participated at the Festival on Active Citizenship taking place in Padua from 3 to 12 of May 2013 (please see here the programme ) with a specific workshop on the European Citizens’ Initiative (May 4,  2013 – Paladin meeting room/ Moroni Palace, Padua – h. 17:00).
This meeting was the occasion to inform about the European Citizens’ Initiative, established by the Treaty of Lisbon, which enables one million citizens who reside in different countries, to directly take part in the elaboration of Community policies, presenting the European Commission its own legislative proposal.
Antonella Valmorbida ,Director of ALDA (Association of Local Democracy Agencies), opened the workshop and introduce dthe Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013. Particular focus was assigned to the functioning of the European Citizens’ Initiative and the presentation of the Italian communication campaign on the European citizens by Stefano Milia, General Secretary of ICEM – Italian Council of the European Movement, followed.
At the end of the meeting there was the opportunity for an overview on the European Citizens initiatives currently open for signature presented to the audience by the respective representatives of the sponsoring committees.

ALDA is pleased to inform you about an excellent internship opportunity in Azerbaijan at the Economic Research Centre (ERC), member of ALDA. All interested candidates are invited to apply this program and the deadline is June 15, 2013.

Economic Research Centre (ERC) is a policy research oriented think tank established by independent economic pundits of Azerbaijan in 1999. ERC is dedicated to fostering the role of civic participation in decision-making process over economic policy issues and strengthening the social dialogue.

ERC is looking for interns for two positions: Research Assistant and External Relations. The duration of both internships is two months and both internship positions are non-paid.

For more detailed information please see ЗДЕСЬ

Please also see the ERC institutional website: www.erc.az

The intermediary steering committee in Caen, Lower Normandy Region (France) – 11 April, 2013 and Skopje (Macedonia)- 16 April, 2013

The Decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and Macedonia is preparing to start its third phase. On this occasion the French and Macedonian partners gathered to make a progress report, on the actions taken during the period October 2012-April 2013. They also exchanged on the future of cooperation for the next period 2013-2016.

The intermediary steering committee for the Lower Normandy partners took place in Caen, April 11, 2013. An important point was made on the current political situation in Macedonia following the 2013 municipal elections. Political changes in Macedonia will not have a significant influence on the cooperation. The same matter was also discussed at the steering committee in Skopje on 16 April 2013. The cooperation between the Lower Normandy and Macedonian local authorities will continue to progress and strengthen relations. The international cooperation remains one of the priorities of the newly elected representatives.

During the meetings the partners analysed the actions in progress and the agenda for this year. In Caen, as in Skopje, each partner had the opportunity to discuss their activities, the obtained results and encountered difficulties. The implementation of the activities is on-going and the cooperation between partners continues.

The new 2013-2016 three-year program will proceed in cooperation with local authorities from both territories. The activities in the future will continue to strengthen institutional cooperation, exchanges and youth mobility between the two territories. The project addresses the issue local governance. The municipalities remain as one of the primary goals of the cooperation, with increased presence by the local government.  To enable the development of cooperation, the axes may be redefined to encourage horizontal cooperation and promote the territorial approach.

Both steering committees designated strong common will to continue and strengthen the cooperation between Lower Normandy and Macedonia, and uphold their activities in order to respond and meet the needs of citizens from both territories.

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. The members approved the past and future programmes as well as the Strategic Views of ALDA  for the next three years.

The General Assembly was also connected to the Международная конференция  of the programme VIT and for the event on the 18th
 of the programme AdriGov on the theme of citizens’ participation and territorial cooperation in Western Balkans (promoted by the Region Istria).

The meeting gave the opportunity to members, staff of ALDA and all the Local Democracy Agencies delegates meeting) to assess their common work and identify the future objectives.

ALDA is a very active and dynamic organisation. Its field of activities is very important for Europe, for the enlargement countries and for the regions bordering with the EU. Local Governance, decentralisation and good work at the local level between civil society and local authorities are a guarantee for democracy and sustainable, long lasting development. I am sure we will have good job to be done in the future with the support of our members and partners, said Mr. Otocan, President of ALDA.

The event in Pola was also a major gathering of important stakeholders supporting decentralization and local governance in the Balkans. In particular the Committee of the Regions was present with M. Bossmann, Mayor of Piran, delegated by the President of the CoR, Mr. Ramon Luis Valcarcel Siso (Photo DSC_0856)
The city of Pula hosted the event and its Mayor of Pula, Mr. Boris Miletic, opened the sessions days.

The Regional Council of Istria was represented by Mrs. Viviana Benussi .

The programme of ALDA In Pula is also one step to disseminate and debate with citizens about the European Year of Citizens, 2013. ALDA Is very much involved in the European Alliance for the EYAC 2013 . The member of the Steering Committee of the EYAC 2013 Alliance, M. Jean Robert Suesser, and also Vice President of the European Civic Forum, introduced the General Assembly

In this event, the first Scholarship Gianfranco Martini  was given to M. Gianfranco Brusaporci, for his research on the role and future of Transborder Cooperation in South Eastern Europe.

ALDA organized three days of activities from 17th to 19th April in Pula. These events were the last international events organised within the VIT project, which will be ended by the end of June.

This project has been lasting for two years and aims at facilitating debate, action and reflexion between partners on how citizens may enhance governance in Europe and how town twinning can contribute to the dissemination of European Union values and the construction of a European identity. At the same time, the project wishes to revitalize existing town-twinning relations of the partner towns and initiate new twinning.

The first event organised on Wednesday 17th April aimed at presenting the results of the VIT project and conclusions that can be made on the basis of the two last years of project. It was also the occasion to present to participants the core of the final publication of the VIT project that will be edited by the end of June. This publication will show and explain the steps of creating a network, the benefits of twinning and the opportunities for citizens to actively participate to the development of the society, mainly through volunteering.

The second day of activities consisted in an interactive and very participative activity called “Creative Café”. The main goal of this activity was to brainstorm and proposed recommendations integrating the contributions of experts and practitioners on the future of town twinning and the role of citizens. Participants were divided in four tables, each of them having a specific theme. The four topics of discussion were “Benefits of town twinning for Local Authorities and citizens”, “Cooperation between LA and CSOs for the long-term success of town twinning”, “Citizen participation and role of volunteering to keep town twinning alive” and “attractive/innovative forms of town twinning and renewal of issues tackled”. Each participant spent 20 minutes on each table before being asked to move to another table to contribute to another discussion. This Creative Café led to very interesting discussions among participants and draft recommendations for the development of future successful town-twinning.

Finally, the last day of activity was dedicated to an international Conference on the 2013 European Year for Citizens. This conference was organised in Pula in the context of Croatian Accession and gathered high-level experts. Ms Degen from the Task Force for the European Year for Citizens in the European Commission presented the European Year for Citizens, the context of its adoption, its aims and expected results. She also explained the role of the European Commission in the preparation and implementation of the EYC, and the ways the European Commission’s work is articulated with the European Alliance for the Year. Then Mr Suesser introduced to participants the European Year for Citizens Alliance (EYAC) and Ms Rauzan, the Croatian Alliance for the Year. All these presentations allowed participants to have a complete understanding of the Year and of the respective role of each stakeholder.

The second part of the conference will focus on the European Citizenship in Croatia in the context of accession. Ms Tomičić from the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs in Croatia explained the role and tools of this office, of CSOs and Public Bodies to make the EU citizenship and rights attached a reality for Croatian citizens. Her presentation was completed by concrete examples of projects implemented in the field on European Citizenship in Croatia by the Foundation for partnership and civil society development. The conference was opened and moderated by Mr Oriano Otocan, President of ALDA.

For more information, please contact Marine Henry, ALDA project manager, marine.henry@aldaintranet.org

On Friday, April 12, 2013, at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek the “Resource Center for Networking of Municipalities and Cities” was opened. It had been started under the project “Support for Networking and Twinning at European Level”. Also, similar Resource center was opened last week in the town of Subotica.

The Resource Center in Osijek, financially supported by the European Union, has been equipped with information technology, audio and video equipment, in the total value of 40.937,99 HRK and it will be primarily focused on the strengthening and networking of 12 towns and municipalities in Croatia and Serbia on both regional and European level. In the same time the task of the Resource Center is to encourage active citizenship of the involved communities at local level which will be in that way involved in the marking and promotion of the European Year of Active Citizenship 2013.

Stjepan Ribić, director of the Regional Development Agency of Slavonia and Baranja, presented the need for capacity building, with the special emphasis on the human resources, and also he presented the history of RDA. “The very first employees of the Agency came mostly from the civil society because there they had a chance to be involved in project culture, acquire project writing and project managing skills, said Stjepan Ribić who emphasized that to be successful in getting and managing of European projects there must be present a high level of knowledge and skills, and a continuous education as well.

Stjepan Ribić and Ivan Rimac, director of “Hrast” the Agency for Development of Vukovar-Srijem County, gave an Euro-realistic perspective of structural and cohesion projects speaking about the problems related to towns and municipalities, especially to smaller ones, taking into account the rules of the co-financing and pre-financing of the projects which are expected to be difficult to follow for an individual town or municipality. Also, the level of the documentation required for the application for a project is not sufficient enough and very often the problems already start at the first step related to the issues of property and law.

To prepare for the structural funds preparation of project documentation takes years and it is very expensive, which is an additional problem for smaller municipalities and towns and for the entrepreneurs as well.

Problems which come across for Croatian municipalities and towns were seriously taken into consideration by the representatives from the partner municipalities and towns from Serbia, as they can expect to encounter them as well. Stanka Parać from the Local Democracy Agency Subotica was talking about the current preparation of the state institutions and local and regional governments in Serbia. Bojana Batalo, a representative of the Office for Local Economic Development of Ruma, was speaking about the attempts to use the European funds in the municipality of Ruma and about the benefits which the current project already had for them.

The last part of this event was dedicated to the presentation and agreement on how to perform the concrete project activities to be implemented by partners in the following months.

NAJVAŽNIJI SU LJUDSKI RESURSI

Na Visokom evanđeoskom teološkom učilištu u Osijeku, u petak, 12. travnja 2013 godine, otvoren je “Resursni centar za umrežavanje općina i gradova”, pokrenut u okviru projekta „Podrška umrežavanju i europskoj suradnji gradova i općina“. U sklopu istoga projekta, prošloga tjedna isti ovakav Resursni centar otvoren je i u Subotici.

Resursni centar u Osijeku, uz financijsku podršku Europske unije, opremljen je informatičkom, audio i video opremom ukupne vrijednosti 40.937,99 kuna, a bit će usmjeren prije svega na osnaživanje i umrežavanje 12 gradova i općina iz Hrvatske i Srbije kako na regionalnoj tako i na europskoj razini. Istovremeno zadatak Resursnog centra je i poticanje aktivnog građanstva na lokalnoj razini uključenih zajednica te će se na taj način pridružiti obilježavanju i promociji Europske godine aktivnog građanstva 2013.

O potrebi osnaživanja kapaciteta, i to osobito kapaciteta ljudi, govorio je Stjepan Ribić, direktor Regionalne razvojne agencije Slavonije i Baranje d.o.o. koji je predstavio povijest RRA.
-Prvi djelatnici agencije došli uglavnom iz civilnog društva jer su tamo imali prigode steći projektnu kulturu i naučiti vještine pisanja projekta, te upravljanja projektnim ciklusom, rekao je Stjepan Ribić naglasivši kako je za uspješno dobivanje i upravljanje europskim projektima nužna velika količina znanja i vještina, i neprekidna edukacija.

Euro-realistično su o strukturnim i kohezijskim projektima govorili i Stjepan Ribić i Ivan Rimac, direktor Agencija za razvoj Vukovarsko-srijemske županije Hrast d.o.o. jer veliki problemi očekuju gradove i općine, osobito one manje, zbog pravila sufinanciranja projekata, te predfinanciranja koje će jedinice lokalne i regionalne uprave i samouprave, te poduzetnici i udruge, vrlo teško samostalno izdržati. Također razina dokumentacije potrebne za prijavljivanje projekta nije na zavidnoj razini, a vrlo često problemi nastaju već na prvom koraku kod imovinsko-pravnih problema.

Za strukturne fondove projektna dokumentacija izrađuje se godinama, i vrlo je skupa, što je dodatni problem manjim općinama i gradovima, te poduzetnicima.

Probleme s kojima se susreću hrvatske općine i gradovi pozorno su slušali predstavnici partnerskih općina i gradova iz Srbije koje ovi problemi tek očekuju. O trenutnoj pripremljenosti državnih institucija, te lokalne i regionalne uprave u Srbiji govorila je Stanka Parać iz Agencije lokalne demokracije Subotica, a o  pokušajima korištenja europskih sredstava u Općini Ruma te dosadašnjim koristima koje je projekt do sada za njih imao, Bojana Batalo, predstavnica Kancelarije za lokalni ekonomski razvoj u Rumi.

Posljednji dio ovoga događanja bio je posvećen prezentaciji i dogovoru oko provedbe  konkretnih projektnih aktivnosti koje partnere očekuju u narednim mjesecima provedbe.

Psycho-social rehabilitation of cancer patients was one of the inspiring 9 mini-projects presented in Minsk on 12 April at the closing event of the EU-funded TANDEM Project which ALDA has carried out in Belarus. Trusted local partner has been as in many previous projects the Lev Sapieha Foundation.

TANDEM has focused on cooperation for citizen participation and community development in Belarus and the other subgranted mini-projects have dealt with disabled children and orphans, agro- and eco-tourism as well as environment-friendly sustainable development. Two of the mini-projects included partnerships with local authorities in other countries. Impressive has also been the involvement of many different stakeholders in the communities concerned. Through their participation citizens have been able to build social capital demonstrated by their confidence and capacity to influence the life and development of their communities. What has been good for their communities is good for their regions and eventually also for the entire country.
The mini-projects were awarded certificates on their completion which were handed over by Miroslav Kobasa from the Lev Sapieha Foundation and Per Vinther from the ALDA Board.
The TANDEM project will be followed by TANDEM II with a similar objective which is scheduled to start in May 2013 and will include even more mini-projects with a doubling of the amount available for sub-granting. There will also be more international partnerships. TANDEM II will last for two years and include training on project management and local self-government.

On the 4th of April, the Vice-President ALDA Alessandro Perelli and the Director of the International Telematics University UNINETTUNO Professor Maria Amata Garito signed a cooperation agreement between the two institutions and launched their first common project, namely the new edition of the Master on-line in European Law and Policies.

Promoted by the International Telematics University UNINETTUNO in collaboration with the ALDA and the Italian Council of the European Movement.
By combining the expertise of the network ALDA in the European context and the experience of UNINETTUNO in distance learning with six faculties and nine master’s degree courses and professional training courses and students from 40 different countries, the new cooperation agreement will lead to the development of other training opportunities tackling European themes and topics.
In particular, besides the above mentioned Master, ALDA will develop a series of webinars focused on EU programs and funds, with special reference to the new programming period of the European Commission 2014-2020.
Finally, ALDA and UNINETTUNO – through signing the agreement – have expressed their common interest to develop new and innovative transnational projects that are able to combine ALDA and commitment on European issues and the focus of UNINETTUNO on distance education.