The measure Town twinning is the first Measure of the Strand 2

Europe for Citizens – Town Twinning

Town twinning is aimed at activities that involve or promote direct exchanges between European citizens through their participation in town twinning activities and encourage networking and cooperation between twinned towns. Democratic engagement and civic participation within the within the”Europe for Citizens 2014-2020 programme. This strand aims to foster European citizenship and improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level, to encourage democratic participation of citizens at EU level and to support concrete participation in the EU policy-making process.

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Strand 2. Democratic engagement and civic participation is directed at activities covering civic participation, focusing in particular on European Union policies.Initiatives developing opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning, solidarity, societal engagement and volunteering at EU level.

Volunteering is an essential element in active citizenship: by giving one’s time for the benefit of others, volunteers service their community and play an active role in society. They develop the sense of belonging to a community thereby also gaining ownership. Volunteering is therefore a particularly powerful means to develop citizens’ commitment to their society and to its political life. Civil society organisations, associations of a European general interest, town twinning associations and other participating organisations often rely on volunteer work to carry out and to develop their activities. Therefore, particular attention is paid to the promotion of volunteering, in particular through the European Solidarity Corps. In its first phase, the European Solidarity Corps, the new EU initiative which aims at giving young people across the EU the opportunity to volunteer where help is needed and to respond to crisis situations, will build on existing EU programmes online White Sites dating including the Europe for Citizens programme. In this context, project promoters are encouraged to make use of the European Solidarity Corps. Promoters making use of members of the European Solidarity Corps must comply with the requirements laid down by the European Solidarity Corps Charter, including the requirement relating to the insurance of the members. Indeed, within the framework of the Europe for Citizens Programme, the Agency does not provide directly or indirectly an insurance coverage to the volunteers/members used by the promoters for their projects. It is therefore for each promoter to ensure that the volunteers/members they are making use of are properly insured for their activities. All the eligible countries within the Europe for Citizens programme can participate to the European Solidarity Corps initiative.

2.1. Town twinning Town twinning supports projects bringing together citizens from twinned towns to debate on concrete issues from the European political agenda. They will develop opportunities for societal engagement and volunteering at EU level.

Town twinning projects must – involve municipalities from at least two participating countries, from which at least one is an EU Member State; – a project must involve a minimum of 25 invited participants, coming from the invited municipalities; – take place in any of the eligible countries participating to the project.

The maximum accepted duration of the meeting is 21 days. The maximum grant to be awarded is EUR 25,000 per project.

Applicant and partners – Type of organisation: Towns/municipality or their twinning committees or other non-profit organisations representing local authorities. – Number of Partners: A project must involve municipalities from at least 2 eligible countries of which at least one is an EU Member State.

Participating countries: – 28 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. – Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo. For British applicants: please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, British applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project. The Programme is potentially open to the following categories of countries provided that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commission. a) acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective Framework Agreements, Association Council Decisions or similar Agreements; b) the EFTA countries party to the EEA Agreement, in accordance with the provisions of that Agreement.