TWINNING
“A twinning is the meeting of two towns who intend to proclaim that they are teaming up to act from a European perspective, to confront their problems jointly and to develop closer ties of friendships between them.”
Jean Bareth, founder of CEMR, 1951
The twinning movement began in the years following the Second World War, with the aim of bringing citizens of different countries closer together. Their initial motivation was therefore mainly that of promoting peace.
The current town twinnings have certainly retained the aspiration to forge friendships between citizens of different countries, but can go far beyond that, allowing two or more local authorities to face more specific problems they have in common.
The European Commission and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) encourage and support town twinning.
SYVICOL has set itself the task of promoting cross-border cooperation for Luxembourg municipalities through twinning as well as other forms of partnerships with foreign local authorities. In this context, it keeps a register of town twinnings concluded by Luxembourg municipalities. It also makes all the useful information in this area, especially in terms of co-financing, easily available to its’ members.
Looking for a twinning partner?
We recommend the www.twinning.org website of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) which functions as an exchange platform - a virtual and multilingual meeting place for municipalities across Europe and around the world.
This site gathers all the useful and necessary information about the world of town twinning.
To avoid the risks of the virtual world, the application forms, completed by local authorities, will be validated by the relevant national associations, in this case, SYVICOL for Luxembourg municipalities, before they are finally put online.
