Kent twinning |Town twinning | Selection Procedure | Golden Stars award | Town twinning in Europe
| Information on Twinning .... |
Congratulations! You have reached the Twinning Information Web Site. We provide information on the concept of Twinning. Twinning is the principal tool of pre-accession assistance for Institution Building. It was launched in May 1998 and aims to help candidate countries in their development of modern and efficient administrations. It does this with the structures, human resources and management skills needed to implement the acquis communautaire to the same standards as the Member States. The framework for administrations and semi-public organisations is provided by Twinning. This is enables the new member states or candidate countries to work with their counterparts in Member States.
| Information on town twinning .... |
Town Twinning is a concept of which few people fully understand. Therefore, we shall try to explain it more clearly below. To know and understand each other better. The concept of Town Twinning originated in Europe shortly after the Second World War. These days, Twinning brings together municipalities throughout Europe, linking them in a dense network of citizens. The original idea behind the Town-twinning movement is to know and understand each other better. Twinning allows people to find out more about the daily lives of citizens in other European countries. It allows us to talk to them and exchange experiences, and to develop joint projects on issues of common interest. Examples of such projects are local integration, the environment, economic development, and cultural differences. Town-twinning can make an important contribution towards the development of European citizenship as it is heavily based on the citizen’s involvement. The European Commission awards grants to Twinning events such as educational programmes on topical European issues. In 1989, the EU support scheme was established following an initiative by the European Parliament. Towns and municipalities in Europe have welcomed the scheme and made great use from it. In 2002, more than 2500 grant applications were received by the Commission. "Golden Stars of Town-twinning" is an award that is presented by the European Commission to 10 outstanding projects that have contributed successfully to European integration.
| How the selection process works .... |
All submitted grant applications get registered by the Commission. The submitter will then receive an acknowledgement of receipt indicating their file number. They should then mention this number in all further correspondence with the Commission. The application is checked to see if it is complete and correctly filled in. This is done by the Commission who will inform you in writing if your application does not meet the participation criteria. All complete applications will be evaluated and presented to an Evaluation Committee. Here, the projects are examined on their quality against the criteria specified in the call for proposals. This focuses particular attention to the European content and the educational value of the projects. It is not possible to fund all the submitted applications for Town-twinning projects due to a limited available budget. This means that any submitted application for funding will be competing with many other proposals.
| The 2003 winners .... |
"Golden Stars" for outstanding Town-twinning projects
The Golden Stars award is a prestigious award that a community or group of people can be very proud of.
Figel is the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, at the opening ceremony of the Forum.
Town twinning is an excellent example of what citizens can do at a local level to contribute to the greater integration of Europe. It is by sharing our different experiences that we grow richer both culturally and socially, said Figel.
The ten winners of the "Golden Stars of Town-Twinning 2003" are:
Dordrecht (NL) “ Revised policy on disabilities
Orimattila (FI) “ Influence of young people on local decision making
Specchia (IT) “ Co-operation in the filed of energy, environment and bio-agriculture
Basingstoke (UK) “ Mobility of young people
Alhama de Granada (ES) “ Young people: global social issues
Montgeron (FR) “ Integration of disabled people within local communities
Moldovita (RO) “ Local youth activities
Braunfels (DE) “ Role of young citizens in creating the future of Europe
Å iauliai (LT) “ Social integration through sport
Wuppertal (DE) “ Strange: theatre, film and dance to tackle intolerance
| Town twinning in Europe .... |
Following the Second World War, in order to bring people into a closer understanding of each other and to promote cross-border projects of mutual benefit, the practice of town twinning was developed. The first ever town twinning dates back to 1947. This involved Bristol Council sending five 'leading citizens' on a goodwill mission to Hanover. Town Twinning is still more popular as a concept in Europe than any where else. However, the idea has now spread to other continents, leading to some very interesting pairings.
European town twinning is now supported by the European Union. This support scheme was established in 1989. A budget of 12 million euros was allocated to about 1,300 projects, in 2003.
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