The celebration for the 15th anniversary of the LDA of Sisak (HR) coincides, for a not accidental case, with the eve of Croatian access in the big European family, and the awarding of the “12 stars label” to the Municipality for its efforts in ELDW, the European local democracy week, by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
The official celebration will take place the 4th of November, with an international conference on “The Road of Croatia towards the EU: the role of Croatian Local Democracy Agencies (LDAs)”, organised in the framework of the ELDW, ) by the LDA of Sisak, in cooperation with ALDA, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the CoE and the the Municipality of Sisak (9.00-13.30 City Hall Sisak).
The Conference will be attended by many national and international experts and representatives of European and national institutions as well. Among them Ms Barbara Toce, Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and Vice Mayor of Pedaso (Italy), Ambassador Henrik Ofstad, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb, Ambassador Paul Vandoren, Head of the EU Delegation to Croatia, Mr. Dinko Pintarić, Mayor of Sisak, Mr Per Vinther, President of ALDA.
In these 15 years, starting from the ruins of the conflict, the LDA has been a promoter of many initiatives whose aim was primarily to promote the participation of citizens and their associations and to strengthen the democratic debate with local authorities.
These are the values which Croatia has signed up to get access to the European community and some credit goes also to the work done by the ADL of Sisak.
During last 15 years LDA Sisak has implemented more than 100 projects that have directly involved over 15.000 people. Established in 1996 as a pilot project of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Council of Europe and since 2006 working as a domestic organisation, Local Democracy Agency Sisak enforced itself as one of the key actors in civil society development in Sisak and Sisačko-Moslavačka County. From its very beginnings LDA Sisak is implementing projects aiming to protect human rights and democratic society development, promotes values of tolerance and non-discrimination, multiculturalism, cooperation, partnership and active citizenship.
In addition to the international conference, Sisak was selected by ALDA to host the Annual LDAs Delegates meeting and the Annual Meeting of the Lead Partners Representatives of the LDAs (3 – 5 November).
The Association of LDAs is confident that the regular meetings and discussions among the Delegates and the Lead Partners of the LDAs could contribute to the development of all the network of the Agencies, in particular with regards the concept of partnership in the framework of the multilateral decentralised cooperation and the area of intervention and interest of each LDA.