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.

Danny was accompanied by Mark Mark Nowottny, working in Civicus for the Board members. The visit of Civicus representatives was important to identify a common approach towards the European Institutions in terms of lobbying and funding. For ALDA, member of the Board of Civicus since 2012 with the participation of Antonella Valmorbida, the focus is to raise the issue of local governance and local democracy within the priorities of Civicus, which is operating around the globe. As for Civicus, they could find in our organisation a reliable and strong part in Europe and the Neighbouring countries. The meeting paved the way for a good cooperation.
Recently, Alfonso Aliberti, staff member of ALDA, has been appointed in the Youth Advisory Council of Civicus.

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.
This three-days event aims to analyse and develop the relation between migrants and politics in Italy.

A set of activities is foreseen: meeting with groups of refugees and asylum seekers, watching documentary on Italian national politics about migrants and borders and their repercussions at European level, meeting with local associations dealing with the defence of migrants rights, etc.
This event is organised by the LDA Zavidovici as partner of the project gathering 14 Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities coming from Albania, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Macedonia and Malta. The project led by Local Council Association of Malta and in which ALDA is partner, aims at providing a well structured dialogue among twinned or keen-to-cooperate towns, with specific reference to active participation in political life of specific target groups: women, youngsters and immigrants.

Furthermore, an open conference will be organised on Saturday 2 February in the palace of Università Cattolica di Brescia. It will gather professors from different realities working with migrants, such as Pietro Cingiolani from Centro Fieri of Torino, Maddalena Colombo from CIRMIB, Franco Valenti from Foundation for Human Rights Guido Piccini, Maria Perino from University of Piemonte Orientale, Lorenzo Trucco from ASGI (Association of juridical Studies about Migrations), Camillo Boano from University of London. Discussions will start with an overview about migration flows and at national level and continue with an analysis of the relation between migrants and urban spaces and the rights of migrants in work field, with a specific focus on women and new generations. During the afternoon there will be the contribution from different migrants associations active at local and national level such as Yalla Italia, Forum Marocchino and Association of Malians in Italy.

The last dinner will see the participation of 16 students from the University College of London, who will share the results of their study realised in Brescia and analysing 4 different cases where the presence of migrants affects somehow the urban space.

For more information and for registering, please contact Maddalena Alberti, LDA Zavidovici, maddalena.alberti@lda-zavidovici.org

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.
“The twinnings between cities in Europe were an essential part of the Development of Europe, based on the commitment of local authorities and citizens.

Today, this instrument is a strong element to build the European citizenship and city to city cooperation”, said the Director of ALDA, Mrs Antonella Valmorbida. The participants to the international conference that took place in the Council Room of Vicenza on the 19th of January, brought the best practices and difficulties. In particular, were introduced the experiences of the city of Vicenza (Councillor Mr Federico Formisano), hosting the event, and the twinned cities, like Pforzheim – with the Mayor Gert Hager – and Annecy – with the Deputy Mayor, Mr Jean Claude Fabbian. Vicenza has also a friendship with Osijek (Croatia) but they could not participate.

Mr Roger Lawrence, Leader of Wolverhampton City Council and member of ALDA Bureau, represented ALDA.

The recommendations issued by the conference were very concrete. In particular, it was agreed to write a common letter to the Italian authorities to make sure that the costs for twinning are not considered as public relations costs but cultural investments (and therefore not easily cut). A committee for the support of twinning will be soon set up soon, within the umbrella of ALDA and its office in Vicenza.

For the general recommendations that will be presented in the final international event of VIT (on the 18th and 19th of April in Pula), will also include the need a) to support the twinning committees b) to create a link between twinning and communities of foreigners in our own countries c) to identify the possibility to support twinnings with oversees municipalities.

The work started on the 18th on very practical basis with the training for local authorities and Association at the Association of Craftsmen, where the Development officer of ALDA, Mr Boaria presented all the opportunities offered by the programme Europe for Citizens. The training gathered more than 30 participants and many from the area.

The 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. In particular, the strategy is confirming the role of ALDA as a membership based organisation, focusing on local governance and citizens participation in Europe and in the Neighbourhood.

It addresses the role of the Local Democracy Agencies in South Eastern Europe and in the Eastern Partnership. Following the Statute, the LDAs could be opened also in other areas, in particular in the Mediterranean area, when useful and when the conditions are met.
As for the LDAs are concerned, the future step will be towards East with activities in Azerbaijan and in Ukraine.

The programme of 2013 was also adopted with an ambitious list of activities. “In the present times, it is difficult for all the local authorities and associations to find the necessary resources to be engaged, but we confirm that ALDA and the Local Democracy Agencies represent a resources for the communities that needs support rather than a cost”, states the President of ALDA, Oriano Otočan. “We could secure our members a list of services that will help them to be better informed on all the policies and opportunities. We are also a very big source of networking and contacts”.

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 activities of the association in the European project planning for the promotion of democratic rights and, in this framework, the important role of the two Serbian LDAs of Subotica and Niš.

Mr Perelli also urged that also the other Serbian local authorities join ALDA and its network.

The Prime Minister Dadic underlined his approval for ALDA’s action, in order to ensure more effective local governance and the support to decentralisation processes and local development.

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 (19 December 2012)
About 50 representatives of the Organisations, which have joined the Italian Alliance attended the meeting, leaded by ALDA and CIME.

The event represented the third official meeting of the Alliance and it was the occasion to establish important decisions:
an operative subdivision in seven Working Groups, (the role of Young People, Gender equality, Volunteering, Inclusive Society, Proximity and Subsidiarity, and, finally, Culture) headed by different Organisations.- Although these Working Groups represent the specificity of the Italian reality, they reflect perfectly the European macro-subdivision in three Working Groups;

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Italian Alliance and the organisation of local authorities TECLA.
A detailed list of activities was agreed and in particular a first meeting in January 2013 to meet the future political groups that will run for the elections on the 24th of February to ask for their support for the cause of a more democratic and inclusive Europe.

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.
One day training in Zavidovici was organised by the LDA Zavidovici in close collaboration with Stanka Parać from ALDA as senior trainer.

The interest for this training was quite high, over 30 representatives of local NGOs and public institutions from Zavidovići and Žepče attended the seminar.
During the training there was presented Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) followed by interactive workshop related with developing an idea into a project proposal, project cycle management and its objectives (clear and realistic project objectives and consistency with and contribution to general policy objectives), project cycle management stages (programming, identification, assessment, financing, implementation and evaluation), general project objective and specific project objectives.
During the training through interactive and simulation exercise participants worked on producing of a concept note for EU projects.
In the closing of the workshop, the participants presented their group work, and the trainers have also provided their comments and practical advice for improvements, while the communication and the group dynamics will be maintained through information share and including the participants into the mailing list for project beneficiaries.
As a follow-up coaching and mentoring process, the participants group was advised not to hesitate to seek advice from trainers on any topic they may not understand, and encouraged to continue good work.
The project “The European and Our Affairs” is funded by the European Union from IPA 2011 Information and Communication Programme. Project is implemented by Association of Local Democracy Agencies – ALDA in partnership with LDA Zavidovići and Municipality of Zavidovići and Development Agency Žepče as associated organisations.
Activities include capacity building, public promotion campaigns, and knowledge share involving diverse sections of local society, while the local policy/decision makers, business sector, NGO-s, local media and young people are among priority target groups. The proposed contents and expertise engaged serve both as a learning opportunity for the actors involved, but also to help bust some myths and stereotypes related with the EU integration.

This project is funded by the European Union.
“This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of ALDA and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.”

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 project is being implemented within the IPA Cross Border Cooperation Programme Croatia – Serbia 2007-2013. It is financially supported by the European Union and will be implemented over the period of 18 months.

The aim of this project is to contribute to capacity building of municipalities and towns in the border region of Croatia and Serbia for more effective cooperation at both regional and European level and to contribute to fostering of active citizenship in local communities of Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar Syrmium counties in Croatia and Bač and Srem districts in Serbia.
The introductory speaches at the Opening conference were conducted by the Vice Prefect of Osijek – Baranja County, Jovan Jelić and the Rector of Evangelic Theological Seminary, Peter Kuzmič. After the introductory speaches expert presentations on the topic of local self-government in Croatia and Serbia were held by Tunjica Petrašević, docent at the Department for Constitutional Law and Political Science of the Law Faculty in Osijek, Croatia and by Slobodan Martinović from Centre for Policy research from Serbia.
“The goals of the corss border cooperation today are to link population along two or more borders in order to cooperate and solve their everyday problems, and which can not be solved within their own national borders. Emphasis is on the economic and social problems, but also on economic interests. But we should not forget that the first reason for inception of cross border cooperation was the establishment of peace and good neighborly relations between the warring parties. Given the fact that Croatia in 90-ies was dragged into a war with Serbia, it is necessary to specifically refer to the importance of cross-border cooperation as a contribution to peace and stability in the region, ” emphasized Tunjica Petrasevic.
On twinning strategies talked Zoltan Pamer, consultant for EU programmes of international and interregional cooperation, and Paula Raužan, president of the Local Democracy Agency Sisak.
Zoltan Pamer presented the community-led local development (CLLD), a specific tool that will be introduced to us in the next programming period of the EU (2014-2020), and which may mobilise and involve local communities and organisations to contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and which may foster territorial cohesion and implementation of public Europen policies . „This tool is focused on sub-regional levels (towns and their surroundings) and it envisages also the cross border cooperation“, explained Pamer.
Paula Raužan presented modern concept of town twinning, its pre-requisites and active citizenship. She explained that the concept of active citizenship means to actively involve citizens into life of their community and therefore into democracy as well – especially into action and participation. However, she also explained that the concept is much more than giving into charity or for humanitarian purposes and much more than voting at elections or volunteering.
Project „Support for networking and twinning at European level –SNET.EU“ will be implemented in the towns of Osijek, Vukovar and Beli Manastir and in municipalities of Erdut Nijemci, Drenovci in Croatia and in the towns of Novi Sad and Subotica and municipalities of Apatin, Bac, Ruma, Stara Pazova, Beocin i Indija.
Main project activities are capacity building activities on European policies and EU integration process (conferences, seminars and training), establishing of the Resource centres in support of networking of local authorities in border regions of Croatia and Serbia (promotional workshops and exchange of good practice) and thematic workshops in municipalities and towns in border region.
By April 2013th the training on the twinning program in Novi Sad will be held, the Resource Centers in Subotica Osijek to support networking of local authorities in border regions of Croatia and Serbia will be opened and seminars on European policies will be held in Vukovar and Apatin.

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.

Last year, the two organisations organised together training activities for young people and citizens on the future of Europe and better understanding of the current situation. For 2013, a wide spectrum of initiatives are already in place and fitting into the European Year for Citizens, which is the priority for 2013. A first meeting will be on the 18th of January where the Vicenza section will be involved in the local event of the VIT – Very Important Twinning, supported by Europe for Citizens.

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.
Together with Ms Aleksandra Jerkov, member of the Serbian Parliament and Mrs Biljana Zasova, Programme Coordinator in ALDA, they presented a diverse picture of the systems of decentralisation and local economic development in Europe.

The cases of Italy, Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia have been presented, along with an overview of the different decentralisation systems in Europe. The experts had also the opportunity to learn more about the current practices in matters of local economic and regional development in Tunisia by representatives of local initiatives
Thanks to the project of Citizens’ Workshops on Writing of the Constitution (ATECC), Lam Echaml has aimed at contributing to the writing of different chapters of the new Tunisian Constitution, with the aim to discuss with ordinary citizens and activists about the dynamic in establishing a new order in Tunisia. The ATECC project puts into practice participative democracy in Tunisia as they offer to organisations, associations and citizens the opportunity to make largely known their ideas, reflexions and requests about the future Tunisian Constitution.

ALDA, in cooperation with PLATFORMA, is organising a regional consultation for the Eastern Partnership countries and the Pre-Accession countries (Western Balkans and Turkey).
The Consultation will take place in Paris (11 December 2012, 167 boulevard de la Villette, 75010),
And will be carried out on the basis of an “Issue Paper”, prepared by the European Commission services, which analyses the situation and the challenges of LAs in development and proposes several themes to articulate the debate around.

The consultation is taking place within the programme WTD – Working Together for Development, which is focusing on strengthening the capacities of its partners, both ALAs and CSOs Networks, to be engaged in development cooperation actions.
The European Commission is preparing a Communication on the role Local Authorities (LAs) have in development cooperation. The communication is expected to be released early 2013 and will guide future EU development programs and the role given to LAs in these programs.
The Issue Paper states that the complex challenges to reach sustainable development goals and poverty reduction cannot be addressed exclusively by central governments. Actors at the local level must be involved to promote and achieve good governance, sustainable development and inclusive growth.
Through the consultation process, the European Commission will seek to integrate consultation feedbacks in the drafting of the Communication, which will be addressed to the European Parliament and Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

An international Conference (qui link al pdf: Agenda Conference Paris_05-12-12 ) on “Human Rights and Intercultural Dialogue in Development”, will be held in Paris on the 10th December 2012 (Federation of the Ligue de l’enseignement – 167 boulevard de la Villette, 75010), organised by ALDA in cooperation with CIDEM – Civisme et Démocratie.
The event will take place on the occasion of the celebration of the Human Rights Day, date chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The conference has been organised within the framework of the WTD – Working Together for Development programme, which aims at exploring the opportunities Local Authorities and Civil Society Organisations have in working together to promote more sustainable global development achievements.
The conference will mainly focus on the role those actors have in promoting human rights values and intercultural dialogue practices in their own communities and how this can affect the global development agenda.
Bearing in mind that the question of the human rights and of the intercultural dialogue represents essential aspects for the entire Europe today and being aware of the rich cultural diversity in the enlarged Europe, we think that the local political representatives, as well as CSOs leaders, have to deal with a colossal challenge: the peaceful and constructive dialogue between cultures. It is a “sine qua non” condition for the European construction, for its economic, social and cultural dimension.
The Conference will gather together academic experts, political representatives, CSOs leaders, human rights activists and citizens to discuss together the need for a more incisive promotion of Human Rights values, in and outside Europe, as a valuable tool to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

The opening conference of the new project Support for networking and twinning at European level, funded by the European Union under the Cross-Border Programme Croatia-Serbia, was held in Subotica, SRB (5 December 2012) , organised jointly by the LDA-s Subotica and Osijek.
This project, that lasts 18 months, is carried out by LDA Osijek in cooperation with LDA Subotica in partnership with the Croatian Institute for Local Government – Hills, Evangelical Theological Faculty – ETF, Open University Subotica and ALDA.

The activities that will be organised during the 2013th start with the opening conference in order to establish resource centers and support the improvement of the administrative capacity of local governments in the border areas of Croatia and Serbia to build partnerships for European projects.
Participants of the conference were local authority and CSO representatives that were welcomed by Stanka Parać Damjanović, LDA Subotica, Miljenko Turniški – LDA, Jovan Jelić deputy head of the Osijek-Baranja county, Marta Dobo – City council member responsible for international and regional cooperation, Erika Kudlik – head of the Local Economic Development Office Subotica and Consul General of the Republic of Croatia, Dragan Djuric.
In addition to the presentation of the planned project activities and representation of experiences of the municipalities in inter-municipal cooperation, professor Mijat Damjanovic talked about the regional policy of the European Union, while professor Jovan Komsic presented the European standards of cross-border cooperation. Slobodan Martinovic from NGO Argument gave a presentation on decentralisation and local development coalition for democracy in Serbia.
Bojana Batalo from the Municipality of Ruma presented their experiences in project implementation and Snezana Milesevic from the Municipality of Apatin gave a presentation about the former and ongoing cross-border projects.

The final meeting of the PRINCE project “Civil Trust Building – Find your way through Enlargement Labyrinth” gathering all the project partners and the contact persons from the Western Balkan countries whose participation was coordinated by ALDA, was hosted by the Italian organisation ARCS.
Overview and assessment of one year condensed activities with the highlight on the Labyrinth tour through EU cities – Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Udine and the questionnaire analysis regarding the perception of the local citizens about EU enlargement, designing the follow-up activities – were the main topics discussed during the conference.

The Western Balkan country progress reports and the European Parliament’s Report on enlargement policies, criteria and EU strategic interests (3/10/2012) were further debated as the key documents requiring a strong involvement of civil society organisations and their regional networks.
The conference was also an opportunity for presenting a broad perspective and overview of the present status and future challenges of EU enlargement process by Prof. Virgilio Dastoli, President of the European Movement Italy, who spoke about the achievements of active civil society engagement over the past years with particular regard to adoption of the EU standard in fundamental rights and liberties and embracing the European values by the newly acceding countries. A number of regional CSO initiatives were mentioned in this regard, and in particular: Declaration of the European Movement – Italy supporting European Citizens Initiatives (ECI) claiming fundamental rights such as plurality of information, environment protection, free access to information, mobility of young people and strengthening of participative democracy as well as the European sustainable development. Further to this, specific mention was given to complementary document to the “European Manifest” of the EYCA (Italian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens) calling for support to autonomous initiatives promoted by citizens and NGO-s in order to carry out activities of general interest;
Similar Western Balkan regional CSO-s network statements have already been widely disseminated so as to enhance a greater involvement of civil society actors at different levels to help making the overall societal and economic reforms happen and thus continue with the EU integration beyond 2013 – after Croatia’s full accession. Therefore it is of utmost importance to refer to the Enlargement strategy (European Parliament – A7-0274/2012) stressing inter alia, the role of civil society as an important engine of approximation with the EU in creating bottom-up pressure for the advancement the European agenda, improving the transparency of the process and strengthening the public support for accession.

For further information please visit: www.civiltrustbuilding.eu

Stanka Parac Damjanovic
ALDA Regional Programme Coordinator

The celebration of the eighth anniversary of the Local Democracy Agency Mostar was held in Mostar, on Wednesday 28 November.
Since 22nd November 2004, when LDA’s partners signed the Partnership Agreement with the representatives of Mostar City local authorities, their common vision of a Local Democracy Agency was founded on an idea for it to be a place of mediation, room for dialogue and exchange of information and experiences on all levels of local community and European partners.
During these past eight years LDA Mostar tried to meet those expectations.

“We built bridges between the citizens of a divided city, unfortunately still in many different ways, bridges between the citizens and local authorities, worked on linking City of Mostar with other cities of the region and European Union countries, transferred experiences and knowledge. In some of our activities we were committed to youth, gender issues, European integration, education, but in every step of this road our guide was the voice of the citizens. We consider ourselves lucky and are well pleased that on this road we had a strong support of local authorities, non-governmental organisations, media and citizens of this city, but also in cooperation with our international partners” stated Dzenana Dedic, President of LDA Mostar during the anniversary ceremony.

The Fourth Western Balkans Civil Society Forum, organised by the European Economic and Social Committee, was held in Zagreb (November, 26-27th).
The main topics on the agenda were freedom of expression, rural development and employment, and the role of civil society organisations in the enlargement process.
It brings together approximately 150 participants, including representatives of Western Balkan civil society organisations, the EESC, governments’ representatives and the EU institutions.

The event was opened by Staffan Nilsson, president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Stefan Fule, Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, and Vesna Pusic, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia.
ALDA attended the event represented by Dzenana Dedic, LDA Mostar Delegate and Chair of the LDA Delegates’ Advisory Committee.
A final declaration with recommendations from civil society organisations will be issued at the end of the event.The main topics of this year event included also: improvement of freedom of expression and the media, the role of CSO’s in rural development and employment, as well as issues of additional strengthening capacity of Civil Society Organisations in the region.

ALDA was granted a new project within the Citizens Exchange Programme of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The programme aims to stimulate the exchange between civil society organisations and to support exchange of people for grassroots expertise, fieldwork actions and awareness campaigns in the Euro-Med region. The main focus is on projects related to the core Anna Lindth themes: dialogue, diversity, democracy and development.

In this framework, ALDA will start an exchange with the organisation Lam Echaml from Tunisia. From January to March 2013, ALDA and Lam Echaml will exchange their interns in order to intensify joint cooperation, which have already been established in the previous projects. ALDA’s intern Vesna Dolinšek will join the Lam Echaml team in Tunis and Cheima Ben Hmida from Lam Echaml will support our implementation office in Strasbourg.
This exchange represents a great opportunity for ALDA to strengthen and give further concreteness to its cooperation efforts in the area, to establish new partnerships and to contribute to a stronger citizens’ participation, decentralisation and civil society empowerment in the Med area.

ALDA has recently officially entered the European Group of Economic Interest – EGEI “I Teatini – Institutional European Network”.
The Group is based in Lecce (Italy) and it is participated also by the municipality of Monfalcone, the municipality of Lecce, both representing members of ALDA.

The EGEI, legal body created under the European Law to facilitate and encourage cross – border cooperation, represents a very important opportunity for ALDA to enlarge, intensify and facilitate its activity in the Mediterranean area, which is becoming more and more strategic for ALDA.
Indeed, ALDA will be entitled to participate, through its affiliation to the EGEI, to further EU programmes of territorial cooperation, namely those of transnational and cross – border cooperation for the Mediterranean and South East Europe. Furthermore, the mixed nature of this legal entity, which integrates public and private bodies, will allow the participation of its members to a wide spectrum of fields and initiatives, going from institutional topics to sustainable development, culture and more.