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.

Identify common problems and try to solve them together. This is what emerged in the recent meeting between the mayors of the Istrian area, on the Croatian, Slovenian and Italian side, held in Grisignana, organised by LDA of Verteneglio.
After an initial phase coordinated by ALDA the conference should be independent and will ask, as already happened in other parts of Europe, European funds to be able to realize projects.

The proposal was made by the President of the Istria Region, Ivan Jakovčić, representing all the Mayors of Istria.
Create a non-governmental organisation, not competing with national institutions in policy-making, is the idea of Jakovčić, who will write a draft document that mayors should adopt to form this organisation that may be called “Standing Conference of Municipalities in Istria and Trieste”.
The Vice President of ALDA, Alessandro Perelli and the delegate of the LDA Verteneglio-Brtonigla, Umberto Ademollo, stressed the need of cross-border cooperation through joint actions to solve the problems of the population that are the same in all the municipalities. A collaboration at the local level that will be even more facilitated by the now upcoming accession of Croatia to the European Union as a Member State.
“We must focus on the practical problems of our people, as the highway to be completed, the possibility of obtaining care hospital in Izola and why not in Trieste, a simplification for students across borders and breaking down barriers in entrepreneurship, especially for young people” said the mayor of Grisignana, Rino Dunis.
Fully agreed with these themes the other mayors attending the meeting: Edi Andreašić (Buie), Anteo Milos (Cittanova), Dorijano Labinjan (Verteneglio) e Aleksandar Krt (Portole), representing Croatian Municipalities, Danijel Cep, Deputy Mayor of Capodistria, Peter Bossman (Pirano) and Igor Kolenc (Isola) representing Slovenian Municipalities and Nerio Nesladek (Muggia) and Premolin Fulvia, (San Dorligo della Valle – Dolina) representing Italian Municipalities.
Also the Mayor of Trieste, Roberto Cosolini, absent for institutional commitments, is available to participate in the initiative.
The Consul of Italy in Rijeka, Renato Cianfarani, stressed the need of collaboration between towns with a story and a social culture so close. Also the Honorary Vice-Consul of Italy in Buie, Giuseppina Rajko attended the meeting.

In the framework of their official visit in Serbia, ALDA President, Oriano Otočan, and ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida are meeting key representatives of the Province of Vojvodina.
Today /16 November) in the afternoon they met Istvan Pastor, President of the Assembly of Vojvodina Province.
In the photo: Istvan Pastor, President of the Assembly of Vojvodina Region, ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida and ALDA President Oriano Otočan

The first appointment in the morning was with Branislav Bugarski, Provincial Secretary of the Government of Vojvodina and Secretariat for Inter Regional Cooperation and Local Self Government.
The cooperation between the Region Istria and the Province of Vojvodina has been intense in these last years, in particular as common situation of boarder regions, with relevant and multiple ethnic groups. The meeting was also positive in presenting the role of ALDA and the LDA in Subotica, active since 1993. It was discussed the possibility to join several joint projects on local and regional authorities development as well as the engagement of citizens.
In the evening they went to Subotica for visiting the LDAs office and its staff.

In the photo: Branislav Bugarski, Provincial Secretary of the Government of Vojvodina, ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida and ALDA President Oriano Otočan

The President of ALDA, Oriano Otočan, together with Antonella Valmorbida, the Director of ALDA, are visiting the LDAs in Serbia these days. Today (15 November) a first meeting took place in Kragujevac, where the Mayor Stevanovic Verko was met and the full membership and partnership with ALDA was confirmed.
In the photo: ALDA President, Oriano Otočan, the Mayor of Kragujevac, Stevanovic Verko, ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida and Dobrica Milovanovic, Alda Governing Board member and Deputy mayor of Kragujevac.

A particular interest was shown as for the issue of Decentralisation and instrument for strengthening capacities of Local Authorities and Regions. The next meeting took place in Nis and the Deputy Mayor, Ljubivoje Slavkovic, and its team was met. The Governing Board Member, Dobrica Milovanovic, from the city of Kragujevac was present too. Also in Nis, a strong support from the Municipality was secured both the ALDA and to the LDA Central and Southern Serbia.
The new possibilities to work with the programme Europe for Citizens were presented since Serbia joint the programme a few days ago. The representatives of ALDA also stressed the future cooperation in 2013, within the programme of activities of the European Year of Citizens.

In the photo: : Alda President, Oriano Otočan, the Deputy Mayor of Nis, Ljubivoje Slavkovic and Dobrica Milovanovic, Alda Governing Board member.

ALDA, in cooperation with the Urban Center O.A.S.I. of the municipality of Thiene, Italy, has announced the launch of the training course “Europa Facile”.
The training will help ordinary citizens, CSOs and Local Authorities to approach the wide world of the European policies and will guide them in finding interesting opportunities for youngsters, adults, citizens in general.

In particular, ALDA will present programmes related to transnational mobility, such as Youth in Action, programmes more oriented to education and vocational training (Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci), education for adults (Grundtvig). Then, interesting for all citizens and for local authorities as implementors of policies for active citizenship, ALDA will present the “Europe for Citizens” programme.
Important elements for the European project cycle management will be also provided.
ALDA’s trainers in charge for the course will be Marco Boaria, coordinator of the resource and development unit and Anna Ditta, project development officer.
A press conference to present the initiative was held on the 14th November in the municipality of Thiene, at the presence of the municipal councillor for youth policies, culture and equal opportunities Mrs. Maria Gabriella Strinati, Anna Ditta, project officer of ALDA, Adelina Tadiello and Giuliana Zilio, persons in charge of the Urban Center.
The training course will be free of charge and will be held at the Urban Center of Thiene, It will start the 20th November and will end the 26th March 2013.

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!