Town twinning projects aim to promote democracy

Date: 13/02/1997

LOCAL authorities across the Union are teaming up with the European Commission to push forward the EU's key goal in the former Soviet Union - democratic reform.

Through a town-twinning programme being run by the Commission's Tacis programme in conjunction with Eurocities and the Moscow-based International Association of Twin Cities, towns east and west of the former Iron Curtain are cooperating to share experiences about local government methods.

Participating EU town administrations will play host to two or three officials from a comparable town in the Newly Independent States (NIS). For 12 weeks, NIS civil servants will see how western cities or public services are run.

Eight cities have begun the process of taking in NIS administrators for on-the-spot training.

But the programme will really take off next Monday (17 February) when local administrators from 40 EU and 40 NIS towns meet Tacis officials in Brussels for the formal launch of their new exchange programmes.

During the conference, Tacis officials will group participants for round table discussions on issues ranging from the environment to welfare, and from drug abuse to urban planning.

Without seeking to predetermine the outcome of those discussions, Tacis officials will spell out their policies in the various sectors, “so the projects are compatible with EU policies”, said Tacis programme director Charlotte Adriaen.

Each project, comprising a 12-week stay by NIS administrators in Union cities and a reciprocal eight-week visit by European employees to their guests' home towns, will be monitored periodically by Commission representatives in the NIS.

Once the exchanges are over, Tacis officials may check to see whether the project - which is being funded by the Commission to the tune of 9 million ecu this year - has brought changes in the way local NIS administrations are run.

However, they say the aim is not to westernise former Soviet cities. “The Europeans will learn as much as the NIS people will learn from us,” insists Adriaen.

Officials also point out that no changes can be implemented without political support on the NIS side. For this reason, they hope that local mayors will accompany their staff to western Europe so they will be more receptive to any ideas the latter bring back with them.

“We want to build an east-west cooperation at a local level which will be long-lasting,” says Adriaen.

Two-thirds of the 40 NIS towns participating in this year's town-twinning project are Russian.

“It is the first time we have had cooperation with Russia. That is why it is interesting,” says Mogens Pirch, who is one of four Danes working on an environmental project for the harbour of Kaliningrad.

The Russian port city, cut off from its mother mainland and lodged between Poland and Lithuania, has always been a highly sensitive area. Pollution in the harbour from coastal oil industries and from Russian naval operations has long been a bone of contention in the Baltic region.

But Pirch, who works for Copenhagen's environmental protection agency, says both sides are anxious to bridge the long-standing gap between them. “There are a lot of cultural differences between the way we work in Copenhagen and how they work in Russia,” he says. “But we are ready to learn and to give back, and to exchange experiences.”

The project has only just begun, but Russian officials from the harbour administration (a national agency) as well as local authorities and private port-users are already involved.

The Copenhagen team will air its views on how the polluted harbour should be cleaned up. “We will give them information and experience of how we would do it,” says Pirch, adding that his Russian counterparts are “open to hearing that advice”.

The 12-week exchanges funded by Tacis will not be nearly enough to accomplish the task, says Pirch, who describes them instead as “the first step to closer cooperation”.

For the privilege of cooperation, Copenhagen will foot 20&percent; of the bill for the project. The Commission pays 80&percent; of the cost of each town-twinning project, up to a ceiling of 100,000 ecu. Pirch says it is not yet clear whether the funds allocated by the Commission will be sufficient, but adds: “I hope so - who else is going to pay?”