On 2 and 3 March 2012, RECREATURA arts&culture, organised the first workshop within the ALDA project “VIT” concerning “Volunteering in times of crisis”.
Spain is among the countries which have been most affected by the current economic crisis with an unemployment rate rising to more than 20%, among young people even more than 40%.
During the conference more than 100 participants discussed the effects of the crisis on active citizenship and volunteering in plenum or in one of the five working groups concerning gender issues, immigrant groups, youth issues/education, the social media or urban policies. Numerous experts and representatives of civil society organisations from both Spain and other countries affected by the crisis (Portugal, UK, Italy among others) were present. Visits to current urban projects, two exhibitions and a public breakfast in cooperation with breakfast with pedestrians (”Desayuno con Viandantes”) rounded off the agenda.
RECREATURA is very happy with the outcome of the event and is currently already planning some follow-up cooperation activities.
Further details of the event including the presentations of the speakers are available on the RECREATURA website.
Contact details: info@recreatura.com
Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, last president and vice president of ASAEL, the Aragonese Association of Local Authorities, that was dissolved in late 2009 swept away by a scandal, have been sentenced to pay 30.180 euro to ALDA, to cover the debts made when they were members of the Governing Board of the Association.
The Court of First Instance considered them responsible for the non-payment of the sum due to ALDA for the realisation of European projects in which were both partners.
In the photo: Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida during a press conference in Zaragoza
« ALDA had a contract with ASAEL who did not honoured it. We are pleased that the court has agreed with us and that we should be able to recover our funds”. Stated President and Director of Alda, Per Vinther and Antonella Valmorbida. “The judgement sets out clearly the responsibilities and behavior to be expected of locally elected officials. ALDA has always promoted accountability and transparency in local governance, but it is the population of Aragon who should benefit the most from this judgment on the merits of this unacceptable behavior by its locally elected officials ».
Asael was leader of some European projects in which were partners, with ALDA, other European public institutions and associations.
After developing their ordinary activity, the Aragoneses association did not disburse the agreed amount to its partners, in particular ALDA, that reported the case to the Court.
The judge has estimated the reasons presented by the Attorney Charlez Landivar and by the Lawyer Victor Sanz Pomar, representing Alda, against Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, and has condemned them to the payment of the debts, amounting to 30.180 euro, legal interest and costs.
On the 6-7 March ALDA held the Second of the four trainings foreseen within the THINK EU project, addressed to almost 200 students from the High Schools of Pula and Labin, in Istria, Croatia. The training was held by Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, and it aimed at discussing with the students the advantages and disadvantages of being young Europeans.
The project THINK EU has been developed by the Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development of Region Istria and founded within the Europe for Citizens Programme. It has as main objective to support Croatian accession to the EU with a strong, deep and sustained dialogue between civil society actors, youth and children and citizens in Istria broadening the knowledge and understanding of the EU and the process of European integration and rising the quality and impartiality of media coverage on issues related to EU membership.
ALDA participate in the project as partner and is in charge of supporting the Foundation for the topics about active citizenship and participation with the objective to transfer the long lasting experience and knowledge in application of methodologies within the project topics, to implementation several trainings and workshops on EU institutions and EU funds, and to disseminate through its wide European network and partners projects’ results and products. It will also support the Foundation in the organisation of a Study visit in Veneto.
The members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, express their deep concern over the recent diplomatic conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.
The representatives of the Belarusian civil society, members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum are convinced that the solution to the essentially important issues of reforming and modernisation of Belarus and turning it back to the network of the European communities, may lay the basis for negotiations and overcoming the existing conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.
On 28th February Local Democracy Agency of Osijek organized in the premise of the Evangelical Theological Faculty a debate on the current issue of ACTA and piracy on the Internet generally. Debate moderators were Daria Selci, a law student and Dalibor Kraljik, MTh, assistant professor at the Evangelical Theological Seminary.
In an interesting and dynamic two-hour debate, the participants, mostly high school students had the opportunity to get informed and to learn something new about ACTA as well as to express their opinion on this issue. The general position of the ACTA was discussed – its good and bad sides and its eventual applicability in the context of the European Union, but particularly within the Croatian context. A special emphasis was given to the problem of forgery and Internet piracy. Participants had the opportunity to express their opinion about the problem, and to give constructive suggestions on how the problems could be accessed and possibly solved.
This debate was one in a series of activities that LDA performs with young people trying to address and put on the table European agendas and current issues from every day media space, encouraging them to think about them and give them the opportunity to present potential structural solutions.
French delegation from the municipality of Saint-James, from the Lower Normandy Region was on three-day visit in Kruševo, Republic of Macedonia in order to establish an international cooperation between both municipalities.
During the brief visit, the local authorities of both municipalities have identified the possible areas of cooperation, concentrating on tourism as one of the main topics of cooperation.
In that manner, the French delegation led by David JUQUIN, counsellor in the municipality of Saint-James, thanked the Mayor of Kruševo, Vasilco DAMESKI, and invited the municipality to present Kruševo and its beauty on the Municipal Fair in Saint-James, next September.
Town twinning as a segment in the Decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and Macedonia builds up contacts and friendship with communities from the two territories and promotes better understanding. The Programme for Decentralised cooperation is coordinated by the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA).
The increased involvement of Local Authorities (LAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in EU development policy generates the need for the establishment of a new alliance among them in order to capitalise and improve their experiences and methods of actions.
On 28th of March 2012, in the Committee of the Regions premises in Brussels, will be launch WTD – Working Together for Development with the International Conference ”Local authorities and civil society: a partnership for development”.
During the last two decades, LAs gained a significant expertise in terms of conflict prevention, decentralisation and confidence building in development, revealing themselves as real catalysts for change. In strong cooperation with CSOs, LAs confirmed decentralised cooperation methodology as one of the most relevant tools to promote a shared and bottom-up approach to development, inside and outside Europe.
ALDA, which has been one of the first European actors promoting this practice through the network of Local Democracy Agencies, is launching a new alliance between LAs and CSOs interested in having a voice heard in Europe as for policy making about development cooperation.
We will be pleased to involve your institution or organisation in this new challenging European endeavour, thus the president of ALDA is honoured to invite you all in Brussels.
The Conference will gather the main European stakeholders in the field of development and aims at debating on the opportunities LAs have to work together with CSOs to foster a bottom up approach to development and to plan a join strategy to make their efforts more efficient.
WTD, Working Together for Development, is a multi-annual development alliance granted within the framework of the European Commission NSA & LA Programme in the Objective III.
It has been conceived by ALDA in cooperation with 21 international partners and associates coming from 16 different countries from enlarged the wider Europe.
It involves both Associations of Local Authorities and NGO networks, and aims at improving their capacities to act as development agents inside and outside Europe, in partnership with EU and national institutions. WTD adopts a multi-stakeholder approach and focuses on creating strong partnerships between Local Authorities and NGOs. It has a special particular focus on Eastern and South Eastern Europe.
For more information contact Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, at alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org or visit the website: www.wtd-alda.eu
French delegation from the municipality of Saint-James, from the Lower Normandy Region was on three-day visit in Kruševo, Republic of Macedonia in order to establish an international cooperation between both municipalities.
During the brief visit, the local authorities of both municipalities have identified the possible areas of cooperation, concentrating on tourism as one of the main topics of cooperation.
In that manner, the French delegation led by David JUQUIN, counsellor in the municipality of Saint-James, thanked the Mayor of Kruševo, Vasilco DAMESKI, and invited the municipality to present Kruševo and its beauty on the Municipal Fair in Saint-James, next September.
Town twinning as a segment in the Decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and Macedonia builds up contacts and friendship with communities from the two territories and promotes better understanding. The Programme for Decentralised cooperation is coordinated by the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA).
Will take place in Strasbourg (1-2 March 2012) the first study visit of the project “Network for Community Development with Marginalised Social Groups”, part of the Lifelong Learning Programme – Grundtvig, coordinated by ALDA and its partners, in the light of the strong impact community organisations have in the development of their own societies.
The project aims to facilitate the mutual learning of innovative tools of community development that tackle the problems of marginalised social groups in different regions of Europe.
The first study visit foresee the organisation of to the event “Round Table – Active Citizenship: Tools for Community Development” in the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg on 1st March 2012 (9h30 – 13h00). The event will be attended by the international partners and local NGOs involved in community development programmes.
The round table will be followed by a visit to the Municipality of Strasbourg and a meeting with Mr Luc Scheeck from the Department for Local Democracy and Neighbourhood Offices who will present the activities of the City of Strasbourg in this regards.
On Friday, 2 March, the participants of the study visit will meet Mr Robert Rustem from the European Roma Forum of the Council of Europe, Mr Dmitri Marchenkov, Secretary of the Current Affairs Committee, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Ms Jutta Gützkow and Ms Jane Crozier-Vincent from Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity of the Council of Europe. During the meeting the activities of the Council of Europe regarding Roma and Travellers, as well as the cooperation of the Organisation with NGOs, will be presented.
The main goal of the event will be sharing knowledge and experiences that attending associations gained throughout their daily activities in their specific field of intervention. This will thus contribute to promote best practices that can be applied in other sectors and in different local contexts.
In the period from 23 to 25th of February a Delegation composed by partners of LDA Zavidovici from Alba (Italy) visited Zavidovici with intention to do the evaluation of the common projects that are implemented in Zavidovici.
The main attention was on the project „A safe place for victims of domestic violence: accompaniment to autonomy and development of local resources“, financed by Municplaity of Alba and Piemonte Region.
The project aims to develop initiatives to support victims of domestic violence and against the culture that produces and legitimises violence itself, through the action of the local network active for over three and a half years and of the « Sigurno Mjesto », a newly established association.
The main objectives are:
- Implement measures to prevent domestic violence and raise awareness about the gender relations with the young people of the territory;
- Provide services to accompany the victims of violence;
- Develop initiatives to support the economic independence of victims of violence;
- The strengthening and development of the local network against domestic violence involving inside the Association « Sigurno Mjesto » (« A safe place », born from the projects supported by the Piemonte Region).
Besides this there have been discussed future activities where is involved territory of Alba as: exchange between kindergartens, summer camps for children “Strani Vari”, youth exchanges and others.
Delegation has been composed by: Nicola Conti (Consorzio Socio Assistenziale-Alba Langhe e Roero), Gianna Pasquero (Ser.T. Asl CN 2 – Alba Bra), Maria Perino (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” – Dipartimento di Ricerca Sociale), Cecilia Madau (Ufficio Pace Alba), Simona Sordo (LDA Zavidovici), Alice Riccardi (Associazione Strani Vari Alba), and Agostino Zanotti (president of LDA Zavidovici). Municipality of Alba is partner of LDA Zavidovici since its establishment in 1996.
BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipality Development with which ALDA has been cooperating for the past two years, has conducted the monitoring of the correspondence of municipality institution in Azerbaijan to the requirements of the European Charter on Local Self-Governments.
As a result, BINA presented a Monitoring report entitled “Assessment of conformity of organisational and operational aspects of municipalities in Azerbaijan with principles and requirements of European Charter”.
The following step is the expected visit in Azerbaijan of the monitoring group of the European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
It is already 12 years since the municipalities started to operate for the first time in Azerbaijan and around 30 pieces of legislation have been enacted to regulate the operations of municipalities during this period. Along with the laws and other normative acts (presidential decrees, decisions of Cabinet of Ministers, etc.), the European Charter of Local Self-Government has become an integral part of the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic. This international document entered in force through the adoption of the law of 25th December, 2001 on the “approval of European Charter of Local Self-Government”, which entered into force from the 1st August 2002.
By joining the Charter in December 2001, Azerbaijan undertook various commitments regarding better self-governance in the country. Over the past period, a number of laws and other normative acts have been enacted establishing the legislative basis of forming and developing local self-governance in the country, three municipal elections held, as well as, some measures taken to establish and develop municipalities in practice.
This report is based on the monitoring which tried to determine the extent to which the legislative basis of local self-governance and municipalities already established in the country are in line with the principles and requirements of the Charter.
Upon developing this report, the monitoring group composed of the member organizations of the Alliance reviewed European Charter of Local Self-Government, explanatory “notes” of Council of Europe’s experts to the provisions of the Charter, relevant documents developed by various institutions of Council of Europe dealing with various aspects of local self-governance, recommendations and commentaries of European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Minister’s Committee and other institutions aimed at resolving specific problems of local self-governance in both Azerbaijan and other countries, held the expertise of laws forming the legal-normative basis of municipalities’ operations in Azerbaijan, and studied existing various challenges associated with municipalities.
The future perspectives of local self-governance reforms depend on the initiatives and attempts of the government, municipal associations, civil society institutes and international organizations.
BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipal Development, was established in May, 2009 by NGO operating in the field of better local self-governance in Azerbaijan. The Alliance, which is in the process of becoming member of ALDA, primarily seeks to develop and implement sound strategies on better local self-governments (municipalities) and coordinate the efforts of and collaboration between national NGOs in order to strengthen the organisational and institutional capacity of municipalities. The Alliance’s mission is to support decentralisation and democratic processes.
The activities of the Alliance include round tables on a range of local self-governance issues, journalist studies to report on municipal problems via Media broadly, reviewing present situation of local self-governance in Azerbaijan, developing policy papers on various local self-governance problems and making recommendations to the government and carrying out advocacy campaigns of suggestions made. Further information about the Alliance can be found on www.localdemocracy.az.
On 26 January 2012 the European Commission organised the launching conference for the European Citizens’ Initiative in Brussels. The ECI, the first participatory democracy instrument on EU level, will be in force from April 1 in all 27 member states.
During the conference that was attended by about 400 participants the Commission’s Vice-President Maros Sefkovic presented the lately designed website for ECI including a section on legal issues, organisational advice and a registry to register proposals.
Denmark’s European Affairs minister Nicolai Wammen, in charge of the Council presidency, stressed in his keynote speech Denmark’s support to the Initiative and emphasised that the Danish Presidency is ready for the start on 1 April.
Committee of Region President Mercedes Bresso welcomed the possibility for European citizens to become more and engaged and promised her institution’s support to develop methods of assistance for interested citizens.
The ECI, made possible by the Lisbon Treaty, allows citizens from at least seven EU member states to suggest legislation to the Commission should they receive a minimum 1 million signatures in support within 12 months. The suggested legislative proposal must be in the area of competences of the European Union covered by the Lisbon Treaties and can be send in from April 1, 2012. The collection of signature for the initiative can be done by paper or by a specially developed open source software by the European Commission.
ALDA took part in the Warming up Conference and supports all engagement to increase citizens’ participation in the European Union
The Local Democracy Agency Armenia is on the move. The LDA partners have appointed David Sarkis Dolmadjian as Delegate at the end of partner meeting that took place in Brussels.
The new delegate will be in the LDA office in Gyumri next week and he will be assisted by ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida.
Paula Rauzan, Delegate of the LDA of Sisak, will stay in Gyumri three weeks assisting him for the launch of the local LDA.
In the pictures: the ribbon cutting at the LDA headquarters
The LDA Armenia will have all the support and assistance of ALDA network, especially from the other LDA and in particular from the other LDA in southern Caucasus, based in Kutaisi, Georgia.
“I am looking forward to new synergies, especially in the Caucasus, for the whole network” stated Mrs Antonella Valmorbida.
It is possible contact LDA Armenia to the email address: ldaarmenia@aldaintranet.org
Partners of LDA Armenia are Rhône-Alpes Region (France), Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy), International Committee For The Development of Peoples CISP (Italy), Union of Communities of Armenia, Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development (Armenia), Journalists’ Club Asparez (Armenia), the Municipalities of Gyumri, the host city, and Ijevan. The role of the international partners will be to provide core financial support, participate in activities where they have the skills and capacities, to encourage their own partners to participate in the work of the LDA and to promote the work of the LDA in their own community and encourage wider participation.
Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia, situated in the North of the country and has been selected as host since it will provide a good basis to allow the LDA to work on a national level.
The Municipality of Gyumri provides an office and rooms for the LDA in the City Hall.
The LDA will facilitate the participation of civil society in the decision-making process at the local level, increase the interest, awareness and capacities of citizens to take part in the decision-making process at the local level and increase the awareness and skills of the local communities and local authorities to address the needs of their citizens. The LDA will support capacity building of civil society and local authorities and it will implement its activities at the local level with trainings, study visits and other participative methods.
Acting as a promoter of democracy and local self-government, the Local Democracy Agency will also promote human rights and sustainable development. The realisation of all objectives will be reached by implementing projects with local authorities and NGOs using the international partners support. The LDA will aim to serve as a bridge between Europe and Armenia and will bring Armenian practice to Europe and European experience to Armenia.
Finally the LDA will also work to ensure cross border cooperation in South Caucasus and will work to promote peace and understanding in the South Caucasus region.
The kick –off meeting (qui link al pdf: ) of a newly launched project supported by PRINCE, Programme of the European Commission – DG Enlargement, will be held in Budapest, 17/18 February.
ALDA is partner of this project named “Civil Trust Building – Find your way through the Enlargement Labyrinth”.
This one year co-operation and capacity building action developed by the European House , Budapest, Hungary, will include LDA-s in the Western Balkans as 7 local contact points for promoting EU integration and regional networking actions for improved understanding and awareness of both enlargement and integration related issues.
Activities also include: national citizens’ consultation on EU enlargement with the participation of appointed contact organisations: production of information tools and questionnaire on EU enlargement labyrinth; internship and exchange of best practice activities; networking between Balkan and EU based NGO-s and project website design (qui link al sito: ).
Other partners are: ARCI, Italy, CNVOS, Slovenia, Pro Democracy Association, Romania, Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Slovakia, The World of NGOs, Austria.
The first of the four trainings foreseen within the THINK EU, addressed to high school students from Pula Croatia, was held on the 13rd March. The training was held by Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, and it aimed at discussing with the students the advantages and disadvantages of being young Europeans. The training was addressed to almost 100 students from the Economic High School of Pula.
The project THINK EU has been developed by the Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development of Region Istria and founded within the Europe for Citizens Programme. It has as main objective to support Croatian accession to the EU with a strong, deep and sustained dialogue between civil society actors, youth and children and citizens in Istria broadening the knowledge and understanding of the EU and the process of European integration and rising the quality and impartiality of media coverage on issues related to EU membership.
ALDA participate in the project as partner and is in charge of supporting the Foundation for the topics about active citizenship and participation with the objective to transfer the long lasting experience and knowledge in application of methodologies within the project topics, to implementation several trainings and workshops on EU institutions and EU funds, and to disseminate through its wide European network and partners projects’ results and products. It will also support the Foundation in the organisation of the Study visit in Veneto.
A special website and a Facebook page have been launched as a part of the activities within the project “Promotion of the European Charter for equality between women and men at the local level”.
Besides getting basic information about the project, broader public will be able to follow closely foreseen activities and progress of their implementation and download interesting publications related to the topic of the project.
Particular section of the website is also dedicated to all partner cities and organisations.
Project is being implemented in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina by the consortium of partners: FENOMENA – Kraljevo, ANIMA – Kotor, Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation – Stockholm and two LDAs, Mostar and Nis.
Project is funded by the European Commission under the IPA Civil Society Facility: Partnership Actions-Empowerment of Women.
ALDA is launching a new project TIC-TAC (Training, Information, Cooperation – Towards Active Citizenship) which will last until January, 17th 2013.
TIC-TAC project aims at promoting all the measures of the Europe for Citizens programme at strengthening the participation of the potential programme’s stakeholders through the creation of a platform for the establishment of long lasting partnership reaching a significant number of different stakeholders (Association of LA, CSOs, LAs, citizens).
The main activities will be an international training course in Brussels focused on all the actions of the Europe for Citizens programme, the organisation of 12 local Info Days and an international Citizenship Fair aiming at promoting exchange of good practices among partners & at creating and strengthening relations through the setting-up of a network based on a dynamic and interactive method.
The partnership is composed of 22 organisations such as Associations of LA, of LA, NGOs, other local actors, both private and public. Media will also be involved.
On 25 January 2012, the French partners in the Decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and North Macedonia met in Caen to discuss the progress of planned activities in year 2012. The participants discussed the standard six components of the cooperation, as well as the topics of human rights and town twinning.
The meeting of the Macedonian partners will take place on February 16 in Skopje.
According to planned activities, next spring will offer many events. Various conferences, study visits and trainings will be held, both in Lower Normandy and in North Macedonia. For more information on the planned actions in the framework of the Decentralised cooperation between the Lower Normandy Region and Republic of North Macedonia please consult the Action Plan 2011- 2012 in French and Macedonian.
For further information please consult the webpage of the Cooperation http://crbn-mk.courriers.info.