It was launched in Sacile (IT), with the first of three planned international meetings, the project WELCOME, “Water: Linking Cities Element, Merging Opportunity for Europe“.
Partners of the project, funded by the European Commission, are ten cities from old, new and future Europe, linked from being cities of water, near rivers, lakes or the sea.
In addition to Sacile, lead partner of the project, participants to this project are the city of Brugnera, Caneva, Fontanafredda and Porcia (IT), Berettyóújfalu (Hungary), Marga (Romania), Novi Grad-Cittanova (Croatia), Spittal an der Drau (Austria) and La Réole (France).
The project was implemented with the technical assistance of ALDA.
The project aims to promote initiatives of reflection, debate and action on the element “water” in all its forms: cultural value, economic agents, territorial and environmental element. His “good” management can improve the welfare of citizens and communities involved, with multiplier effects in Europe through the exchange of best practices among cities of different countries that in common have the feature of being located in areas close to a river, a lake or the sea.
Water, therefore, considered as an element of exchange and comparison among different cultures, models of local governance, and as a unifying vision of a common “European” sustainable future both economically and environmentally.
The “network” of the member cities will be unified on many occasions of exchange and discussion on topics proposed by the project (meetings, workshops) and the work will create a final “Memorandum of Understanding”, which will be signed by the partners together with an agreement of cooperation that will keep them together in the long term.
Water is the link among the ten cities and the experiences of water management as a tool of economic growth linked to tourism were discussed at the opening conference in Sacile (May 6).
The Mayor of Sacile, Roberto Ceraolo, in his introductory speech stressed the importance of cooperation between cities in the path of building a Europe of citizens.
The cities representatives explained how the water, as well as infrastructure related to it, are protected and used to create sustainable development and prosperity for the community.