The Thematic Workshop on Town Twinning within the scope of the Town Twinning between Turkey and the EU (TWIN) project, which is carried out by the Directorate for EU Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was held in Ankara on 27-28 August 2019.
The workshop commenced with the opening remarks of A. Hakan ATİK Head of Department of Project Implementation of DEUA. Senior experts Prof. Dr. Birgül DEMİRTAŞ and Sinan ÖZDEN and TWIN Project Team Leader Sadun Emrealp, together with the participants, discussed many issues about the present and future of town twinning.
On the first day of the workshop, Prof. Dr. Birgül DEMİRTAŞ informed the participants on ‘Town Twinning from Present to Future’ and discussed the challenges of the current town twinning relations, efficient-high qualified and sustainable town twinning relationships, measurable and comparable performance indicators and national scale strategy-action plan with the participants.
In the afternoon session, to constitute town twinning relationships between the local authorities of Turkey and the EU, thematic areas, the role and the functions of the local authorities in Turkey, how local authorities can benefit from town twinning in terms of localising EU legislation and improvement of urban services and more widespread and effective participation in town twinning activities were discussed under the title of “Town Twinning in European Union Accession Process” moderated by Sadun Emrealp.
The second day of the workshop has started with the framework presentation of Prof. Dr. Birgül DEMİRTAŞ on Town Twinning and ‘City Diplomacy’ and continued with the discussions on development and expansion of innovative approaches in the field of town twinning and local authorities, how and through which can City Diplomacy be utilized in order to increase the economic prosperity and urban development, reduction of carbon emission, what cities can do to protect the environment and combating climate change, how different segments of society, especially children, youth and women, could be involved in the process of City Diplomacy.
The last session of the workshop was conducted under the title of Sustainable Town Twinning moderated by Sinan ÖZDEN. In this session, participants worked on the topics of the strengths and weaknesses of the town twinning relationships in Turkey, common points of ‘successful’ town twinning examples, changes and improvements in the legal and institutional framework in order to ensure sustainable town twinning, cooperation and partnerships with businesses, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders.
Thematic Workshop on Town Twinning was concluded with a certificate ceremony after the closing session.