Which are the next steps that Europe is going to take? How can people be actively engaged in this process?

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), launched last year, was meant to animate the dialogue and reduce the gap between institutions and citizens, by allowing the latter to actively share their ideas and recommendations on the multilingual platform to shape the future of the Union.

Thus, focusing on the needs coming from local realities is crucial when setting the scene for future paths and actions. In light of this, ALDA Conference on the Future of Europe and followers to actively join the platform; and it is part of the Civil Society Convention on the CoFoE.

Yet, how far have the neighboring countries, such as the Western Balkans (WB), been able to make their voices heard, and join the process?

 ALDA further stresses its position on the WB, while making itself available as a strategic player for the future of both Europe and the Western Balkans

Unfortunately, the above-mentioned area has face not few difficulties in accessing the debate on the future of Europe. Yet, ALDA has developed many activities in and with WB Countries, gaining a very much solid and well-rooted expertise in the region.

In light of this, ALDA has drafted a formal document, stating its position as far as the Western Balkan and the Conference on the Future of Europe concern. As mentioned in the documents, seven recommendations have been made, among which:

• Support for the integration of the Western Balkan in the European Union;
• Foster youth involvement in the Western Balkans;
• Promote the cooperation between local authorities and civil society

Thanks to this decisions, which has been presented also during the event “Euroscepticism at the gates of Europe”,  ALDA further stresses its position on the WB, while making itself available as a strategic player for the future of both Europe and the Western Balkans.

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Useful links:

Read the “Position of ALDA on CoFoE and Western Balkans” 

Read the article on ALDA’s role in the Civil Society Convention on the CoFoE 

Trieste: the headquarters of CEI – Central European Initiative – hosted, on 4 March 2022, the meeting of the international Governing Board of ALDA.

The President O. Otočan, together with the Members and A.Valmorbida, Secretary General, discussed the statement in support of Ukraine. As previously said, ALDA “call for the EU to continue having an even more engaged role to end the military invasion of Ukraine and start a peace process”. At the same time, the four ways implemented by ALDA to support colleagues, friends and people of Ukraine were further analyzed and discussed among the participants.

In addition, the board went through some technical aspects of the Association itself, from the participation and animation of ALDA Members, to the role of Local Democracy Agencies. 

 President O. Otočan, together with the Members and A.Valmorbida, Secretary General, discussed the statement in support of Ukraine

Moreover, considering the upcoming event related to Euroscepticism, with a special focus to the Balkan region. The latter is also at the centre of a specific strategy developed by the Association, based on its long experience in the area.

Last but not least, the Board discussed the role of the Conference on the Future of Europe, as an opportunity to further better the next steps of the Union itself. 

In lights of the tremendous days in which people of Ukraine are living in, ALDA is constantly in touch with friends and colleagues in Mariupol, Dnipro, Kiev, the district of Odessa, Vinnitsa and other parts of the country. Thus, ALDA Secretary General, Ms. Valmorbida and Mr. Alexandru Coica, the head of Eastern Partnership Unit had today a call with the two Local Democracy Agencies located in Ukraine.

Following the Association’s statement, released right after the Russian invasion, the commitment of ALDA’s Governing Board Members and staff is constant and concrete. Hence, the Association is in touch not only with the LDAs  in Mariupol and Dnipro, but also with the respective municipalities. The city of Mariupol is now experiencing a very hard situation and conditions, which forced people and the whole team of the LDA to move West in search of a safer place. For Mariupol, they call for a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicines and to be protected from airstrikes. The city is badly hit, house by house in the outskirts.

ALDA is working on an emergency mode, specifically dedicated to closely follow all the aspects and updates of the war in Ukraine

Therefore, the General Management office of ALDA has decided to define and emergency unit, specifically dedicated to closely follow all the aspects and updates of the war in Ukraine. ALDA regional office in Chisinau is on the front line, providing news, help and support..

#ALDAforUkraine

On Wednesday 23rd February 2022  ALDA was in Rome at the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies to discuss the outcome of the BRIGHT project with local and national authorities, NGOs and the civil society!

The final conference of the project was an outstanding chance to share ideas and encourage the authorities to adopt more sustainable systems of governance, while explaining the methodology used in the project to co-plan welfare public services. 

The final conference of the project was an outstanding chance to share ideas and encourage the authorities to adopt more sustainable systems of governance

Several high-level speakers took part in the BRIGHT conference, as well as the women leaders, who described their experience and they stood out the results obtained in the South of Italy.

The BRIGHT’s final conference gave the possibility to highlight the outcomes of the project, while being an opportunity to think about the next steps and what is still yet to do to tackle the challenges for women inclusion in decision making processes.

On Monday 14^th March 2022, ALDA officially signed the declaration of Strasbourg for the Conference on the Future of Europe: Appel de Strasbourg.

During few months, ALDA worked alongside others local organisations on this specific declaration that aim to demonstrate the European commitment of the territory, by setting up concrete recommendations allowing to make the city of Alsace the emblematic place of the democracy and the European citizenship.

ALDA officially signed the declaration of Strasbourg for the Conference on the Future of Europe: Appel de Strasbourg

The official restitution took place in Strasbourg City Hall where the document was presented to the press and signed by the Mayor and the members involved into the writing process.

For the occasion, Guy Verhofstadt (Co-Chair of the CoFoe Executive Committee) was present, delivered an inspiring speech on Europe links with Strasbourg and how the CoFoe marks a turning point in the institutions history. Then, he received the document.

To read and sign the Appel de Strasbourg, please click here

On March 4th, the city of Trieste will host the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ALDA – the European Association of Local Democracy – and CEI – the Central European Initiative.

President of ALDA, Mr Oriano Otocan, together with Secretary General of the CEI, Mr Roberto Antonione, and Secretary General of ALDA, Ms Antonella Valmorbida will attend the ceremony. Moreover, Mr Massimiliano Fedriga, President of the “Friuli Venezia Giulia” Autonomous Region will also be among the keynote speakers at the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding.

ALDA is looking forward to this signing ceremony, testifying the fruitful collaboration with CEI

Thus, the capital city of the “Friuli Venezia Giulia” Autonomous Region will be the scenario of this institutional moment, which marks the formalization of this long-lasting collaboration between these two actors. Particularly focusing on the the work of the two organizations in the Balkans region, the Memorandum will further spur the harmony among the two organizations, as already happened within the “WELCOMING project”, aimed at discussing the issues related to migrations and to exchange the best practices and experiences in this field.

ALDA is looking forward to this signing ceremony, testifying the fruitful collaboration with CEI.

ALDA+ , the benefit corporation owned by ALDA, represents, since 2017, the capitalization of the experience of ALDA, the Association Association for Local Democracy, offering specialized services and support in the field of local democracy, participatory processes, project-cycle management, and more.

The mission of the benefit corporation is to provide valuable support to public authorities, civil society organizations, educational institutions, small and medium enterprises when it comes to scouting funding opportunities; developing and implementing projects in a successful way; creating networks and partnerships; providing training and capacity building.

 Based on a tailor-made approach, through these 5 years ALDA+ managed to support more than 60 local authorities in developing and implementing successful projects in their communities, whilst fostering intercultural and transnational cooperation.

ALDA+ has contributed to fostering the skills and capacities of more than 1.000 representatives of local authorities, civil society and SMEs from 20 different countries

Moreover, ALDA+ has contributed to fostering the skills and capacities of more than 1.000 representatives of local authorities, civil society and SMEs from 20 different countries.

 There are many significant “events” which have characterized our first 5 years, such as:

• The coordination of the inter-municipal European Office in Italy (SEI, Servizio Europa Intercomunale) 
• The coordination of the innovation Hub, gathering 12 municipalities to promote new digital tools to improve public services
• The consultancy on Education provided to UNICEF in Tunisia
• The structured relationship with many local authorities and networks of civil society all over Europe which have entrusted ALDA+ with the task of managing their European Office in outsourcing
• The support to communication plans within funded projects, guaranteed both to local authorities and civil society organizations
• Last but not least, ALDA+ has served as an organizer of several networking events, bridging together partners among them or/and with institutions, providing experts and building partnerships

Do not miss any initiatives from ALDA+ , and register to the newsletter (both in Italian and English)

ALDA+ blows out its candles celebrating this anniversary… to 5 more years of success!

The project DESIRE is happy to share with you its new website! Thanks to this new website, everyone can find information about the project and the 10 partners involved in the project. 

Through this website, you can discover more about the activities implemented by the partners, for example the Serbian partner, Danube 1245, organized a walk in a park and invited the citizens to join in to exchange about the Schuman Declaration, European values. If you want to know more about this action, click here and here.

Discover the DESIRE website, find out more on its partners and the Schuman Declaration

→ About the DESIRE project

DEclaration of Schuman: Initiative for Revitalizing Europe (DESIRE) is a Europe for Citizens funded project. The project aims to raise people and especially youth’s awareness on the historical importance and the meaning of the Declaration of Schuman for the EU. The objective is to actively involve youth in approaching history in a proactive way. Through the co-creation of artistic tools, as videos, theater, games, audio narratives, partners will accompany groups of youth citizens in re-discovering history and in debating on EU values as intercultural dialogue, peace and solidarity. The consortium is leading by Comune di Lavarone (Italy) and composed by Fondazione Belvedere-Gschwent (Italy), Union of bulgarian black sea local authorities (Bulgaria), Municipio de Valongo (Portugal), Danube 1245 (Serbia), Zdruzenie Institut za razvoj na zaednicata (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Administration Communale de Grez-Doiceau (Belgium), Fundacio de la Comunitat Valencia de Patrimoni Insdustrial i (Spain), Kulturni centar Osijek (Croatia), ALDA (France).

Greece welcomed the fifth and last Capacity Building Workshop (CBW) on the 7th and 8th of February.  During the two day online event, participants listened enthusiastically to the Greek approach to safeguard the rights of mobile women, illustrated by Vasiliki Tsekoura, on behalf of CYCLISIS. 

The CBW focused on the inclusion of women in decision-making processes and on the co-creation of services and empowerment. Starting from the good practises and actions implemented in Greece, the BRIGHT partners had the chance to discuss and compare ideas on:

• The project’s approach for the empowerment of female exploited in the agricultural sector and the formation of leadership, as ActionAid reminded us;
• The useful tool of the collaboration pacts, as explained by LABSUS.

Participants were thrilled to find out the results of the BRIGHT project in the target countries and listen to the approaches used in Greece

BRIGHT’s stakeholders explained how they managed to create, alongside with the municipality of Schiavonea, a public service to orient women through administrative and bureaucratic services, while CYCLISIS (partner from Greece) focused on the role of the NGOs and municipalities to help women victims of illegal trafficking. The event was a practical and handy way to share ideas and ways on how to tackle problems these women had, and still have, to face, such as the initial reluctance of the local community to integrate them or the possibility to work while caring for their children.

Even though the Capacity Building Workshops came to an end, ALDA invites everyone to join the hybrid final conference of the BRIGHT project on the 23rd of February 2022 in Rome, Italy. 

During the event, institutions, stakeholders of the project and female workers will intervene and present the Manifesto of Women in Agriculture for access to European citizenship rights through 6 priorities for change. The conference will be organised around 3 thematic axes: 

1. Mobile EU women agricultural workers: obstacles to participation and full enjoyment of European citizenship rights
2. the role of public services to contrast the invisibility of women agricultural workers: the leadership, empowerment, and co-programming of services programme
3. the European framework for EUMC rights: how to ensure the full participation of mobile European women citizens in the democratic life in the EU Member States.

There will be simultaneous translation Italian – English and vice versa for all the speakers.

To stay updated on the progress and on the final conference of BRIGHT, follow the project on social media!

🟡 After this great workshop focusing on Greece, do not miss the final conference 🟡

Register here ✍️

Check the agenda of the final conference 📔

Two months of interesting and challenging work were dedicated to the implementation of the project “Advocacy at the local level-Shirak”, within the framework of “Local Democracy School”. More specifically, in cooperation with Communities’ Finance Officers Association (CFOA), and in the form of sub-granting scheme, the “Local Democracy Agency Armenia” foundation implemented a series of meetings in several consolidated communities in the Shirak region with the participation of administrative leaders, council members, municipalities’ staff and active citizens.

Two months of interesting and challenging work were dedicated to the implementation of the project “Advocacy at the local level-Shirak”

Hence, four meetings were held in Artik, Ani, Ashotsk enlarged communities to face and discuss community issues, accordingly to the advanced proposed topics, while getting suggestions to solve problem. The latter have been presented to the local authorities for further consideration via advocacy.

The above-mentioned meetings were of great importance: in fact, simple discussions and conversations with the locals can help in understanding the reality from grass root perspective, reflecting communities’ needs and problems.

From a general perspective, the action is a part of larger project that implements similar actions throughout Armenia, both at the local and regional level.

Finally, the package of suggestions received from each region will be elaborated by the CFOA experts and sent to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.

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“School of Local Democracy” is established by Communities’ Finance Officers Association (CFOA); Eurasia foundation; Information systems Development and Training Centre in the frames of The Civic Engagement in Local Governance (CELoG) Program financed USAID.

On 31 January and 1 February 2022, the SHERPA project organized the second edition of the Annual Conference. This online conference was the occasion to present the work done during the past year, especially the work undertaken by the 20 SHERPA Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs). Indeed in 2021, the MAPs worked on three relevant topics: 

• Alternative rural futures (foresight), 
• Change in production and diversification of the rural economy, 
• Climate change and environmental sustainability. 

These reflections had supported the implementation of the rural vision. Over 100 participants joined the virtual event to listen, exchange and share knowledge and experience with over 30 guest and keynote speakers as well as several Horizon 2020 projects which share their views and results.

This online conference was the occasion to present the work done, especially the 20 SHERPA Multi-Actor Platforms

On 2 February, the SHERPA project organized a training for the Facilitators and Monitors of the Multi-Actor Platforms. This online training was the occasion to gather in the morning the facilitators and the Monitors of the new MAPs. Then the afternoon session was dedicated to exchange and share best practices, advice between the new MAPs and already experienced MAPs. For this new year, the 40 MAPs will focused on and provide their views and inputs one of the 4 topics: 

• Social dimension in rural areas
• Digitalisation, smart ruralities, including rural-urban relations
• Land-use management in the context of climate change
• Entrepreneurship and social economy, just transition, including sustainable value chains

About the project SHERPA: 

Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors (SHERPA) is a four-year project (2019-2023) with 17 partners funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. It aims to gather knowledge that contributes to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas, by creating a science-society-policy interface which provides a hub for knowledge and policy.

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