Town twinning

Janusz Marszalek, the mayor of the Polish City of Oswiecim, has been elected president of twinning network of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) on 5 May 2008, in Reykjavik.

 

The new chair was unanimously elected by the members of the CEMR's Policy Committee gathered in Reykjavik on Monday 5th May 2008. He succeeds Anders Knape who had held this position since 2002 and who had sent the President of CEMR his letter of resignation following his election as CEMR's First Vice-President.

 

During his mandate, Janusz Marszalek will officially launch the new CEMR's website dedicated to town twinning. The website should be available in all EU languages and will be two-fold: a first section featuring general information and news stories on town twinning; and a 'twinning market" to facilitate direct partner search and to stimulate contacts between municipalities and towns from Europe and the rest of the world.

 

CEMR and the 30,000 twinning projects

 

Town twinning is indissociable from CEMR. With its network of twinning officers in over thirty-five countries, and its experience built over some fifty years, CEMR works closely with the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission to promote town twinning as the most effective tool to bring Europe's citizens together across national frontiers, to help build a peaceful united Europe with grassroots support. Today, there are over 30,000 twinning projects linking municipalities and towns from all over Europe.