ALDA is one of the main European Civil Society Associations that promoted the “Civil Society Alliance for the European Year on active citizenship 2013”, with the support of the European Economic and Social Committee.
For the Alliance, active citizenship means primarily active involvement of citizens as participation in the life of their communities, and thus in democracy, in terms of activity and decision-making.
The launch of the European Alliance will officially be in Brussels on the 17th of December.
ALDA, as promoter of the Alliance, is launching its activities in France, Croatia and Italy.

In Rome, on the 14th of November, was held the second and very important meeting of the Italian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013.
Forty organisations participated, invited by the coordinators, ALDA/CIME and Third Sector Forum. The meeting was hosted by Centre of Research Eurispes.

The Alliance confirmed its strategy to be strongly involved in the European Year of Citizens together with the European Alliance. The Italian Declaration was substantially approved and it focuses on Local Democracy and work with local authorities, mentioning the need for them to engage in a dialogue with civil society (art 118, Italian Constitution).
The Alliance agreed also on a methodology of work next year to promote 1000 events, with all the NGOs networks involved. These events will be recognised as activities of the group with a certain Label.
Furthermore, a set of high profile events have already been identified. The Group will be working with the support of a Steering Committee composed of representatives of NGOs chairing thematic working groups.
A particular effort will be paid to involve Association of Local and Regional Authorities as well as to engage, with different means including social networks, the citizens and the community.
An official launch of the Alliance will be sent in Rome in December with the final definition of the Agenda and the launch of the activities and organisation.

The Association of the Local Democracy Agencies, LDA Osijek, LDA Sisak, LDA Verteneglio, Foundation for partnership and civil society development of the Istrian Region, AEGEE- Zagreb, Centre for Civil Initiatives (of the Network CEECN) are the initiators of the Croatian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013.
The first meeting took place in Zagreb on the 6th of November and confirmed this formal step. The Croatian Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013 will therefore officially registered within the National Platforms Alliances supporting the wide Alliance at the EU level.

The Secretary of ALDA, Ms. Paula Rauzan, Delegate of the LDA Sisak will coordinate the group of initiators. She was also accompanied by the Director of ALDA, Antonella Valmorbida and the Delegate of the LDA Osijek, M. Miljenko Turniski
The initiators are now working for launching a vast campaign of mobilisation in Croatia that will engage, before the end of the month, the networks of civil society interested to work for the EYAC 2013. They will be proposed to work together to disseminate the Manifesto at the EU level and probably to adapt it to their national and local situation. It is also proposed to work on working groups and to develop common initiative to include more citizens of Croatia in EU policies.
The Croatian Platform will be of particular interest because of the upcoming integration of the country into the EU. The Annual priority 2013 – Year of Citizens – will be then meaningful to launch a debate on European Citizenship for this new EU members.
ALDA is also member of the EU steering Committee and Coordinator of WG1, as well as initiator of the Italian Alliance.
Next 14th of November will take place in Rome (from 10:30 to 13:30 – Eurispes premises Via Orazio, 31) the second meeting of the partners. In this occasion will be adopted a declaration of intent of the Italian Alliance ECY 2013.

The citizenship fair organised in Malta on 29th to 31st October within the project TIC TAC was a great success. Around 100 participants coming from the wide Europe attended the 3 days conference dedicated to active citizenship and democracy in Europe.

This event was the final event of the project TIC TAC, which aimed at increasing awareness about the European Union, the Europe for Citizens Programme and opportunities for increasing citizen participation at local and European level. It was involving 23 local authorities and civil society organisations coming from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

Imislawa Gorska, Vice President of ALDA, chaired the first day of conference and presented the work of ALDA and the TIC TAC project. Then Mr Jimmy Magro, Executive Director of Local Councils Association in Malta, and co-organiser of the event welcomed participants. Dr Stefan Buontempo, Main Spokesperson for Local Government, Labour Party and Dr. Beppe Fenech Adami, Parliamentary Assistant, Ministry of the Interior of Malta took successively the floor. Ms Mary Gaerty closed the session with a presentation of the Council of Woman in Malta, which is an organisation aiming at empowering women in the island.

The second day was articulated around 8 workshops covering different aspects of citizens participation at local and European level and presenting tools for increasing this participation in the old continent. The first part was dedicated to the cooperation between local authorities and civil society organisations through town twinning and decentralised cooperation. Three workshops presented tools to encourage citizens’ involvement, such as the Europe for Citizens Programme, volunteering and the European Citizens Initiative (ECI). Mr Gerald Häfner, Member of the European Parliament, stressed on the crucial importance that European citizens take the opportunity of the ECI to discuss the main issues and challenges faced by Europe above the frontiers. The democracy in Europe will therefore be stronger.

TIC TAC partners were strongly involved in the event. For example, the Leafair Community Association organised a workshop showing how they work in Ireland for integrating people in local communities while the Centre for Institutional Development (Macedonia) presented their best practices and shared their experience in increasing the direct citizen participation in decision making process at local level. The Association for European Partnership coming from Bulgaria organised a workshop on the solidarity between generations.
In parallel to the workshops, a fair was organised and TIC TAC partners held a stand, where they could promote their activities and share their experiences with participants.
During the third day, Antonella Valmorbida, Director of ALDA presented the strategy 2014-2020 for the Europe for Citizens Programme. The event was closed with a speech made by Mr Cohen , President of the LCA Malta. Biljana Zasova, Senior Coordinator of projects in ALDA made the synthesis of this three days conference and closed the event by reminding the crucial role of citizens participation for a strong democracy in Europe.

From October 25 to October 27 three TANDEM seminars and trainings took place in Belarus. On October 25 ALDA, the Lev Sapieha Foundation, the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments and Gulbene Municipality visited Golshany municipality to see the museum on the Struve Geodetic Arc that has been created as part of the partnership project “Arc: Uniting people and cultures” that was funded by TANDEM. The guests were also introduced to the virtual museum on the Arc, which can be visited here.

On October 26, a seminar on Forms of citizen participation in the decision-making process at the local level was organised in Braslav. At the seminar Mrs. Mudite Priede, Secretary General of the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LALRG) told about citizen participation in Latvia and the work of LALRG in representing the Latvian municipalities at the national level and in negotiations with the Latvian government. Mrs. Guna Švika and Mr. Alvils Pētersons from Gulbene municipality told about the work Gulbene municipality conducts to involve citizens in the work of the municipalities. The participations also learned about the possibilities for citizen participation in Belarus, such as for instance local referenda and territorial self-government bodies. However, despite the legal provisions for these forms of participation the possibilities are very rarely used. The seminar was part of the European Local Democracy week. Representatives from the Regional council in Vitebsk oblast took part in the seminar together with the project managers of projects receiving grants under TANDEM.
On October 27, a training was organised on the topic “From project management to organisational development” to support the subgranted projects in their strategic planning to turn their projects and initiatives into more sustainable structures that could become viable in the long term.
The TANDEM project is supported by the European Union’s Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development programme and will be implemented by ALDA together with the Lev Sapieha Foundation and the Belarusian Organisation for Working Women and will last until first half of 2013. There is more information about the project and the subgranted projects here.

The International forum « Youth Cooperation beyond borders », co-organised and hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Republic of Azerbaijan together with the Ministry’s Youth Foundation and the three SALTO Resource Centres working with the neighbouring regions of the Youth in Action programme – SALTO EECA, EuroMed and SEE – and the National Agencies of France, Poland and Slovenia was held in Baku, Azerbaijan (28-30 October 2012). Marco Boaria, ALDA resource and development Unit Coordinator represented the Association at the forum.

The forum aimed at exploring the impact of the Programme in the frame of the cooperation with the neighbouring regions. It also aimed at developing recognition of the importance of the international youth cooperation in the field of non-formal education between Programme and Neighbouring Partner Countries.
During the forum, needs and achievements identified by research carried out by the regional SALTO Resource Centres on the impact of the Youth in Action programme on were presented and discussed.
The three-day programme included presentation of the outcomes of impact studies carried out by SALTO as well as various discussion groups and workshops focusing on cross-cutting topics of relevance or with a geographical focus (such as impact of the Youth in Action programme on local communities, policy developments, development of the youth sector, recognition of non-formal learning etc.).
ALDA plays a relevant role – together with its Local Democracy Agencies, its members and partners established in the neighbouring regions – in promoting youth cooperation between Member States and the ENPI countries. ALDA mainly acts as multiplier in this field through empowering, on one hand, youth civil society and, on the other, connecting numerous and different stakeholders to promote partnership and cooperation. The participation of ALDA at the forum also goes in this direction and has contributed to strengthened relations and cooperation with key institutions and organisations working in the field of youth at the European level.
The visit to Azerbaijan also represented the opportunity to meet some of the ALDA members of Azerbaijan and have some institutional contacts. In particular, a meeting with the Italian Ambassador, Mr Mario Baldi, was held in order to promote future cooperation in the country, taking into consideration the strong presence of Italian members in ALDA network.

President of ALDA Mr Oriano Otočan on 26th and 27th October participated in Osijek on the LIBSEEN Liberal Leaders Meeting, which gathers the leaders of Southeastern European liberal parties every year.
During the conference he had a meeting with the Croatian Minister of Foreign affairs, Mrs Vesna Pusić, to whom he presented ALDA’s main goals, and informed her about ALDA’s forthcoming activities regarding the celebration of the European Year of Citizens 2013 in Croatia, as a member of the future coalition created for that cause. They also discussed about the way in which Croatia will celebrate the forthcoming accession to the European Union.

Mr Otočan also visited the Local Democracy Agency in Osijek, where he spoke to the Delegate Mr Miljenko Turniški about the current and future activities and projects, and the position of Croatian Agencies of Local Democracy after the accession to the EU.

ALDA, in cooperation with the Local Council Association of Malta, will organise a three days event (qui link al pdf: TIT TAC Malta event draft agenda 22.10.12) in Malta from 29 to 31 October. This event will conclude the project TIC TAC, started in January 2012 and led by ALDA.

This project aims at increasing awareness about the European Union, the Europe for Citizens Programme and opportunities for increasing citizen participation at local and European level.
The event in Malta will gather around 100 representatives of Local Authorities and Civil Society Organisations coming from the wide Europe.
The main aim of the event is to exchange about best practices promoting citizen participation at local and European level, in particular using tools of the Europe for Citizens Programme. It will also be an occasion to debate on the role of local stakeholders in favour of good local governance and promote cooperation between them.
The event will be articulated around 2 plenary sessions and 9 thematic workshops.
In parallel, a fair will be organised and TIC TAC partners will have the opportunity to hold a stand and to promote their activities and best practices.

ALDA organised a meeting with the liaison offices of its members that are based in Brussels, aimed to create stronger synergies and closer connections with them.
Attended the meeting representatives of the Liaison Office Antenne Interrégionale Auvergne-Centre-Limousin (F), Apulia Region (I), Romanian Association of Cities (RO), Autonomous Province of Trento – EuRegio (I), Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (I), Région Basse-Normandie (F), Sicily Region (I), City of Kragujevac (SRB), City of Nis (SRB). All participants were positive about the idea that ALDA will work more closely with the liaison offices.

ALDA will organise in the future regular meetings for the Brussels Liaison offices of ALDA members. Such meetings will be organised every second month, but the meetings could be held more often if there are specific issues to discuss. Liaison offices are encouraged to suggest possible themes and topics that could be discussed at these meetings. ALDA will also invite external guests (eg. from the Commission or think-tanks) to give input if there are specific issues on the agenda that would benefit from the participation of external guests.
The next meeting will be held in the first half of December.

ALDA is taking part in the European Project Award 2012 competition, launched by the European Projects Association.
We believe in the quality of our projects and we would like to invite you to support us and vote for our projects. The voting for the projects is based on the « Like-system », meaning that all users of the MyEuropa platform can vote for their favourite projects. The projects that gain more than 50 Likes will pass the first selection process and will be presented before a jury of experts. The voting is open until 10th November. Thank you for your support!

There are 3 of ALDA’s projects that compete in 3 categories:

• concluded projects: the project Youth: The right direction
• on going projects: the projects WTD: Working Together for Development
• project ideas: the project DECIDE!

You can vote by registering to the MyEuropa platform.
Click on « MyEuropa » in the text (middle of the page) and you’ll be redirected to another page. Click on the « Join us » red box on the right side of the page and register (you will receive a confirmation email).
Once you are registered, click on the logo of the European Projects Award 2012, which will redirect you to another page. Click on « vote » (red box at the bottom of the page) and you’ll have the list of projects. Click on our projects (Youth: The right direction, WTD and DECIDE!) and select the « like » icon on the right side of the page.
Thank you for your support in advance!

A TIC Tac project INFO DAY event was developed in Bucharest (Romania) on 19th October 2012.
It was organised by AMR, the Association of Municipalities of Romania with the support of Bucharest City Hall and United Nations Development Programme, UNDP and the collaboration of the Professional Body of Communicators from AMR.

This activity was organised at the same time in the UN House in Bucharest as a roundtable with presentation of Project TIC TAC, the reached results and the ELDW 2012 initiative and in the University Passage also.
In the University Passage some of the AMR team together with volunteers (students, elderly people from NGO-s) arranged a stand with promotional materials, discussed with people and gave them at their request the questionnaires « Am I an active citizen? » especially elaborated by AMR to be filled in for this occasion. The questionnaires were introduced in a ballot box and at the closing time (at 18,30 hrs) one passer by extracted a questionnaire to be validated and awarded. The big prize was awarded to a student who worked as a volunteer on the Ambulance.

The promotion actions were carried on between 10,00-18,00 hrs. Simultaneously, at the University Passage some pictures/movies/information on the 2 main subjects were showed on 2 big screens.
AMR is implementing the TIC-TAC project coordinated by ALDA focussed on the actions of the „Europe for Citizens” Programme having in view the promotion of Europe Program’s measures for Citizens and strengthening the participation of potential local actors of the program by the creation of a platform for establishing long term partnerships involving a significant number of different actors (associations of the authorities, civil society organisations, local authorities, citizens etc.)
The TIC-TAC Project included as main activities 12 local „INFO DAY” events organised in the partner countries on the „Europe for Citizens” Programme in which the local actors and citizens will cooperate based on the « peer-to-peer » approach to promote knowledge and mutual learning.

15 representatives of civil society organisations coming from municipalities/cities participating in the Project Civil Society in Action for Dialogue and Partnership” took part in a training on « Development of Advocacy Skills“.
The training was organised by the Citizen Association “Centre for Local Development Breza” (U.G. Centar za lokalni razvoj Breza), partner of the project, and was held in Visoko, BiH (10 – 12 October 2012).

The training was part of project activities related to capacity building of civil society organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Aside from the capacity building activities, a meeting of the Project Steering Board, comprised of representatives of Project organisations-partners, took place, where the discussion was focused on the past, first year of the Project, results and achievements in the 6 municipalities in which the Project is being implemented. The plan for the second year of the Project was also revised, responsibilities and tasks of organisations were defined, and next steps for the upcoming quarter planned in detail.
Otherwise, leading partner of the “Civil Society in Action for Dialogue and Partnership” regional Project, is ALDA, while other partners are members of ALDA network from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia – Local Democracy Agencies Mostar, Zavidovići, Osijek and Subotica, as well as Citizen Forum Tuzla, Centre for Local Development Breza, DON Prijedor and Nove nade Bihać, local non-governmental organisations that effectively contribute to the local democratic development and implementation of municipal agreements on co-operation. The Project is supported by the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is a part of IPA Programme supporting networks of civil society organisations.

Civil society in action for dialogue and partnership is an action designed to facilitate the strengthening of the democratic role of civil society organisations in increasing participation of citizens in local politics/decision making process, through the promotion of the agreement on co-operation and measures for networking of civil society organisations from the mentioned areas.

A new « Europe for Citizens  » project: “MY EU”, my Europe, young, equal, inclusive, started on 1st October 2012 and will last until 31st March 2014. It involves 14 partners from Malta, Macedonia, Bulgaria, France, Albania, Italy. The project is led by the Local Council Association of Malta and will strongly involve ALDA, the LDA Zavidovici and the Coalition of youth organisations SEGA as main partners.

The project aims at ensuring a wide, well structured dialogue and an intense cooperation among towns with reference to the active participation in the EU political life of specific target groups: women, youngsters and immigrants. In particular, it intends to increase specific interests and expectations of citizens about EU political agenda and empower citizens to play a full part in the democratic life of the EU, through public debates that involves citizens, citizens associations and policy makers.

The project will consist in four events :

• in 2-3 February 2013 in Italy about immigrants and politics ;
• in May 2013 in France about youth and politics ;
• in November 2013 in Macedonia about women and politics ;
• a final conference and evaluation meeting in Malta on February 2014.

A final publication gathering recommendations made by participants will be produced and addressed to local and EU policy makers.

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

The Governing Board of ALDA, which took place in Strasbourg, on the 17th of October, decided to dedicated an annual Scholarship remembering our Honorary President Gianfranco Martini. This action will give the possibility to those who are committed in their life to support the intercultural dialogue and peace, with local and concrete actions, to be further supported. His memory will be kept in our daily life and we hope that his commitment will guide and inspire the beneficiaries of the Scholarship.

The Governing Board of ALDA remembered with a minute of silence the Honorary President.
The initiative, which will be further defined, will be launched in 2013.

In the photo: Gianfranco Martini, Lucien Sergent, Lucien Martin and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

The President of ALDA, Oriano Otočan, met the newly elected (on Tuesday 16 October) President of the Congress, Herwig Van Staa. The meeting took place in the framework of the Governing Board of ALDA on the 17th of October, in Strasbourg.

During these days, the Autumn Congress Session also took place and it was a good occasion for the ALDA Governing Board members to meet with other important stakeholders for our work.
President Van Staa expressed its full support for the activities of ALDA and the Local Democracy Agencies. The issues discussed were also the future of ALDA activities in Armenia and in Azerbaijan. The issue of strengthening ALDA work in South Eastern Europe was also highlighted. The two Presidents discussed about the new Strategic Views 2012-2016 discussed by the ALDA Governing Board. The document will have its final version during the Governing Board in January 2013.
At the meeting took part also Mrs. Antonella Valmrobida, Director of ALDA, and Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress.

ALDA Honorary President, Gianfranco Martini, passed away on 10 October 2012.
“It is a great sorrow not only for ALDA this news” stated ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida. “Gianfranco was our friend and our mentor” she wrote in a message of condolence.
Gianfranco Martini was remembered on 18 October during “Passaggio a Sud Est”, a transmission of Radio Radicale, an Italian national radio, and on the Blog of Roberto Spagnoli, Italian journalist.

“As ALDA and LDAs, we all owe him a lot. He was the one who inspired the programme and he supported us from the deep of his heart and with all his strengths. He has always been committed to the cause of Europe as an instrument for peace and common growth. Till the very end, we exchanged views about the future, which seemed to him not so promising because losing the true sense of being together. He always showed us the example of personal commitment to the cause and he never preached us what to do but rather did it! Being both real Europeans, we felt particular close one to each other, since he was from my land, Veneto, and we both shared a lot for common stories, a particular dialect and many common cultural references…
Gianfranco endured the difficulties of the Second World War. He was from Rovigo area, a very poor region of the Veneto Region (Italy). He studied Law in Venice and became a promising Lawyer in his home town, Lendinara. He was elected Mayor of this town for many mandates. He has been a European Activist since after the end of the War and contributed to the development of the Congress (earlier Standing Conference) of the Council of Europe. Making a difficult decision at that time, he moved to Rome with his family (four small children) and he spent all his life at AICCRE and contributed to the strength of the CEMR. In the ’90, he started to work on the project of the LDAs and then with ALDA and was our President till 2008.
Like many us are doing, Gianfranco spent his life traveling around Europe and the globe for the cause of local democracy and human rights. He met and was friends with VIPs and with many « ordinary » citizens. Everybody that met him remembered him. He was able to listen to all of us with attention and care. The communication with him was inspiring and stimulating. I have thousands of images in my head. He was a real gentleman, so elegant and deeply educated.
Gianfranco made the difference for us all and certainly for a part of Europe.
We are just so grateful that we had the chance to be among his friends and those who benefitted from his knowledge and experience. We will all miss him”.

“For those who have been active for many years and all their strength to promote the role of Europe as an instrument for Peace and Democracy, as the Local Democracy Agencies and ALDA, this is a great achievement and recognition. I therefore welcome the Nobel price to the European Union!” said ALDA President, Oriano Otočan, in a statement ,commenting on the award of the Nobel to EU.

“As President of an organisation of Local authorities and civil society, we expect this Nobel Price will be given not to the States and Institutions composing the European Union but rather to all the European Citizens, which are truly contributing every day – and in their life – to make the dream come true” said also ALDA President.
ALDA, as stressed Mr. Oriano Otočan, also expect that the Nobel Price, such a symbolic and strong message, could put further energy and relaunch the accession process to Western Balkans. The word of peace and unity must be spread in this part of Europe too.
In view of the Year 2013, Year of Citizen, the Price would be delivered for an idea – our Europe – and for every citizen belonging to it!
“I believe strongly in Europe and participate actively and relentlessly to its strengthening, its ideas, for citizens and with” said ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida.
In her statement she said also: “I value also the power of attraction of our values of peace and democracy that the EU also expresses, towards the countries near us. If the Nobel Prize is intended to European Citizens, I agree, otherwise, I struggle to understand it”.