Jukka Laiho
City Twins Association
Background
The idea to establish association originates from the City Twins’ project - The project
ends but city twins’ stay!
The city twins are the model of across-the-border-cooperation, intercultural life and
dialogue. They are essential parts of the network.
The citizens in twin cities share own knowledge about the life on both sides of the
border - this knowledge must be utilized, developed and strengthened in Europe
Project partners Imatra (Lead partner) – Svetogorsk (RUS), Tornio (FIN) - Haaparanta
(SWE), Görlitz (GER) - Zgorzelec (POL), Frankfurt an der Oder (GER) - Slubice (POL),
Narva (EST) - Ivangorod (RUS) will establish the association together with some other
city twins
The association is open for every city twin, organization and person
The association’s general task is to look after the interests of all bi -national towns in
Europe and to promote multicultural aspects, civil society and civil participation
The association is non- partisan and non – profit - making organization
The only obligation for the members is to pay membership fee
• The association must be legally competent and that is why it must have a permanent
place of residence and rules
www.Imatra.fi
Jukka Laiho
City Twins Association
Tasks
To promote civil society and participation of citizens
To promote good neighborhood and multi- cultural aspects
To overcome obstacles, which hinder citizens from mutual cooperation
To develop innovative partnerships with new partners and major events mobilizing citizens in the context of
intercultural dialogue.
To develop transnational dimension.
To pay particular attention to building bridges between members
To proceed development of synergies between the various activities carried out by members
To network between different kinds of stakeholders.
To foster close friendly relations
To encourage the exchange of representatives of youth, school, cultural and other associations,
To exchange ideas and to work for the peace and welfare of the citizens.
To promote mutual respect, fellow feeling and understanding
To organize meetings with involvement of local government and administration, cultural, commercial and
spiritual life and the promotion of exchanges of all kinds.
To provide a forum for the creation and management of multi-partner projects and presentations of best
practices
• To proceed multi-annual projects, pooling of experience between local projects of different members
To manage and coordinate projects related to the tasks of the association
www.Imatra.fi
Jukka Laiho
Other principles
Membership would be open to all bi-national cities and any person or organization
The association seeks for a public utility and it is a non profit and non partisan organization
Membership involves being informed of activities in good time and with timely reminders, so that involvement is
encouraged and supported from the widest range of participants.
Funding for the association will come from a variety of sources: grants from municipal bodies, sponsorship from
commercial bodies, charitable grants and donations, agency fees from projects, fees from participants
A programme of regular multi-partner activities will be planned (e.g. rotating sports festivals, art exhibitions,
trade fairs etc)
It will aim to be creative in stimulating ideas for international activity in line with different programmes of the EU
and e.g. the "Citizens for Europe" programme.
Once a year there will be organized a conference under some title close to members
The association collaborates with municipal authorities, as well as individuals and organizations.
In order to bear juridical responsibility the association must have a permanent place of residence
If the registered office is in Imatra the association is constituted under Finnish law
The idea is that the chairmanship will rotate so that every member town will chair the association for one year at
a time
The members will pay membership fee for the membership. The board of trustees defines the membership fee.
The association has a board of trustees- 8-10, who manages and governs the association. The aim is that they
should be chosen to reflect the international, municipal, commercial and voluntary community groups of the
participating towns.
• The idea is to establish the association in the final conference 12. -13.12.2006 in Imatra
www.Imatra.fi