A European Twinning Covenant with the "South" Options

[alan]

We have today received an email from the European Commission (via the LGA [Local Government Association] website) regarding a potential Twinnng covenant with countires in the "South". their words, designed to help alleviate poverty.

If any Group or Local Authority is interested, please follow the links in the following copy of the email.


Open letter to local authorities throughout the European Union
[img]http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/michel/img/portrait/12_small.jpg[/img]
Subject: Twinning – call for expressions of interest – invitation to come and sign a twinning covenant during the European Development Days (Strasbourg, 15-17 November 2008)





Madam Mayor, Mister Mayor,

Under the French Presidency of the European Union, the European Commission, in cooperation with the European Parliament, is organising the third European Development Days (EDD) in Strasbourg from 15 to 17 November 2008.

This year, the central theme of this major event will be "local authorities and development". The development of the countries of the South is everyone's business. It is politically and morally unacceptable that in the 21st century a large part of the world continues to live in absolute poverty, exacerbated by the effects of climate change and the food crisis.

A number of local authorities have already launched development projects with corresponding authorities in countries of the South. The results of these experiments are impressive, and have in each case mobilised energies and dynamics based on rewarding human exchanges. Useful, generous and effective projects are implemented at little budgetary cost.

We need many more such initiatives. If each local authority with its (however limited) resources decided to twin itself with a town, a municipality, a district, a province, or a region in the South, the world would be changed and poverty would decrease rapidly.

I am in no doubt that you personally and your colleagues will be keen to participate actively in this major initiative in support of North/South solidarity.

For this reason, I am suggesting that you conclude a twinning covenant and am inviting you to come and sign it at the signing ceremony that will take place during the European Development Days in Strasbourg this November.

If you are interested in my proposal, please register as soon as possible and send your twinning proposal to the European Commission at the following address by 20 September: devtwinning@ec.europa.eu

I hope to see many of you in Strasbourg.
Yours sincerely,

Louis Michel

Rules for the "call for proposals" [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_en3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_lt3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_lv3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_mt3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_nl3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_pl3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_pt3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_ro3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_sk3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_sl3.gif[/img] [img]http://ec.europa.eu/development/images/lang_sv3.gif[/img]
WE, the Portal would be interested in hearing from anyone who is interested in following this up.

Thank you

Alan