“Town Twinning as a Channel of European Solidarity”

Information has been updated at 14.01.2019, 12:39

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PROJECT SUMMARY

Problem: Daugavpils City Council has 17 twin-cities in 11 countries all over the world and great amount of cooperation partners. The cooperation in various fields are active with some of these cities, however this cooperation should be broaden and developed. Daugavpils is the second largest city in Latvia, but citizens of European Union mostly associate Latvia with Riga or Latvia as one of the Baltic countries. The aim is strengthen town twinning through democratic engagement and civic participation based on sharing, understanding, solidarity and intercultural synergy for better future of Europe; to show the importance of Daugavpils in the context of Latvia and EU. In the context of EU cities Daugavpils is quite small and it cannot compete with capitals of other EU cities or metropolitan cities, but it has the importance as a regional centre of services, education, industry, culture and tourism. It is very important to promote the retention of cultural identities, traditions and historical heritage in accordance of the strategy Europe 2020 for EU. The involved cities vary from capitals and regional centres to medium and small cities, including also variety in the context of socio-economic and political situation. This variety will help raising solidarity and civic participation of different people with different interests and attitudes towards democratic engagement and will decrease Euroscepticism and raise positive evaluation towards European heritage. Meeting people from different countries within the project activities will be an opportunity for local citizens to get acquainted with benefits of EU policies, decrease Euroscepticism and debate on the future of Europe.

Aim: The aim of the project is to strengthen town twinning through democratic engagement and civic participation based on sharing, understanding, solidarity and intercultural synergy for better future of Europe.

Objectives:

strengthening the relationships between Daugavpils twin and cooperation cities;
promoting of democratic engagement and civic participation;
promoting of sharing, understanding, solidarity and intercultural synergy for future Europe;
promoting of Centenary of Latvia;
sharing good practices of cultural – historical traditions and popularization of the image of involved cities;
showing cultural – historical traditions and European heritage.

Target group:

Daugavpils twin and cooperation cities – local municipalities and local citizens of involved cities as well as Daugavpils local citizens.

Activities:

5 days event in lead partners’ city – official meetings, seminars, lectures, work-shops, study visits, experience exchange events, debates, international evening.

Results:

strengthened Daugavpils town twinning for future cooperation;
encouraged citizens for democratic engagement and civic participation;
promoted image of Daugavpils and involved cities in EU context;
obtained good practice on cultural – historical traditions and European heritage;
promoted Centenary of Latvia;
organized seminars, work-shops, experience exchange visits, discussions, presentations, experience exchange events, debates, international evening;
disseminated information on project via various mass media all over Europe;
organized opening and closure ceremony of the project with local authority.

Project partners:

Lead partner - Daugavpils city council (Daugavpils, Latvia)

Associated partners:

Panevezio miesto savivaldybes administracija – Panevezys Municipality (Panevezys, Lithuania)
Vänersborgs kommun - Vänersborgs Municipality (Vänersborgs, Sweden)
Landkreis Anhalt-Bitterfeld - Anhalt-Bitterfeld District (Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Germany)
Wojewodztwo Lodzkie – Lodzkie Regional Community (Lodz, Poland)
Opstina Raska – Raska Municipality (Raska, Serbia)
San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy

Program

Description of project's partners