“Local Democracy will save Democracy”: this was the motto and the core concept behind the ALDA Festival 2023, held from 6 to 9 June in Etterbeek, Belgium.

A new period has started in Europe with Spain that has assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The highly anticipated kick-off meeting for the USE IPM (Up-Skilling Researchers for Sustainable Entrepreneurship based on Innovation Process Management) project commenced this July 13, at the Faculty of Economics in Niš, Serbia. 

On Thursday 6th July, the ALDA team met in Brussels (Belgium) with a delegation of the Ukrainian Parliament, supported by the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform (CPLR).

In June and July, 2023, ALDA Secretary General, Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida and the Head of ALDA Middle East & Africa Unit, Ms. Giulia Sostero, were respectively in Zambia (Africa) and in Tanzania (Africa) for the Southern Africa National Level Multi-Stakeholder dialogues, organised by Democracy Works Foundation within the framework of the Charter Project Africa. 

EPD’s Annual Conference and 15th Anniversar took place on June 20th 2023, at the Hotel Comet in Brussels.

This years’ EPD’s General Assembly has been a special one, for the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), for all its network of members, and for ALDA.

The mission of this year’s ALDA General Assembly was to state that Local Democracy will save democracy. In this light, the Middle East & Africa Department organised on June 9th in Etterbeek (Brussels) a roundtable titled “Stronger together: exploring EU’s contribution to local democracy around the globe” in collaboration with the most relevant institutions, donors and partners working together with ALDA in the area.

The ALDA General Assembly 2023, which took place on June 8, was the occasion to present to ALDA members’ representatives, partners and friends gathered in Etterbeek (Belgium), the newly constituted ALDA Advisory Board.

ALDA Festival and General Assembly 2023, which took place in Brussels (Belgium), offered space for strategic discussions on the importance of local democracy in the EU integration processes of the Eastern Neighbourhood candidate countries. Several roundtables and debates were held as part of the ALDA Festival 2023 from 6 to 9 June, 2023.

ALDA’s presence in Ukraine dates back to 2015, when the Local Democracy Agency (LDA) in Dnipro was opened, followed by LDA Mariupol in 2017, thus representing, for almost 10 years, a strategic partner in the country.

This year ALDA celebrates the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the first Local Democracy Agency in the Balkans, LDA Subotica. This special occasion has been at the core of ALDA Festival and General Assembly 2023, within which the event “30 Years Local Democracy Agencies in the Balkans” took place on 9 June, 2023.

This is how Dubravka Šuica, Vice President of the European Commission, addressed members and partners of ALDA, during the opening ceremony of the Association’s General Assembly, on Thursday June 8th, 2023.

On May 25, 2023, the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise in cooperation with the Latvian think-tank organisation Providus held a Roundtable discussion on national European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) practices in Riga (Latvia).

This year, ALDA will have the honour of hosting a very special guest: Ms. Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission, who will open the ALDA General Assembly on 8 June 2023 at the Municipal Hall in Etterbeek (Belgium).

The Kyrgyzstan-based Media Dialogue project is relentlessly proceeding with its implementation; July 3rd 2020 marked another crucial step towards the project goals.

ALDA took part in the two-day Civil Society Organisation Governance Community of practice regional meeting, organised by EU TACSO 3 in Belgrade (Serbia) on 11 and 12 May 2023.

On 15 May 2023, ALDA and the Central European Initiative (CEI) met in Trieste (🇮🇹) to identify further possibilities for cooperation on the basis of the MoU – Memorandum of Understanding.