Town and regional twinning enriches the citizenry at many levels

One reason town twinning is so important for the FGYO is that it reaches all people. Regardless of where a person lives, their transport connections, educational history or talents, these exchange projects are open to everyone. Particularly if a young person has never been able to have an experience abroad, town-twinning arrangements often offer a first opportunity for mobility. They promote the integration of new citizens in the region and foster the formation of long-standing friendly relations.

Town and regional twinning takes on special importance during times of crisis. It is often through town twinning that aid can be organised particularly quickly, easily and unbureaucratically in emergency situations.

Exchange has an increasingly important role to play in regional and town twinning. This has long involved more than simply getting to know each other or appraising their shared history. Instead, participants discuss current challenges and learn from each other about logistics, transport or sustainability. This is how these partnerships make concrete contributions to the transfer of knowledge and to augmenting the quality of life in both countries.

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Réunion des comités de jumelages de l'OFAJ
© Prisca Martaguet

Funding regional and town twinning

The FGYO promotes twinning arrangements between regions and towns not just financially, but also through training courses, resources and networking. Language courses and language encouragement, as well as group interpreters, can also contribute to a successful exchange. That is why they are supported through financing and training provided through the FGYO.

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Réunion des comités de jumelages de l'OFAJ
© Prisca Martaguet

Town and regional twinning remain important pillars of the FGYO

In the coming years, the FGYO wants to promote more children’s encounters and do more to support extracurricular children’s language courses in the municipalities. An effort will also be made to promote additional encounters with communities in Eastern Germany. The quality of the encounters will increase as well.

The project idea also plays an increasingly important role in the encounters. The topics of political education and intercultural learning in particular, but also Europe and democracy, are gaining in importance. The FGYO wants to motivate young people to get even more actively involved. This goal can be implemented at the regional and town levels in particular, as exchanges carried out at these levels are particularly low-threshold.

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Rencontres d'enfants
© 2023 by Jennifer Sanchez, vonZynski.com

L’amitié franco-allemande entre villes jumelées, fruit d’une longue tradition

Le traité d’Aix-la-Chapelle, signé en 2019, vise à renforcer les échanges culturels et sociaux entre la France et l’Allemagne. Dans le même temps, il a été décidé de créer le Fonds citoyen franco-allemand, qui sera mis en place et géré par l'OFAJ. L'une des priorités du fonds citoyen est le jumelage de villes et de régions, afin que les échanges transfrontaliers et intergénérationnels puissent se faire encore plus facilement, sans barrière d'âge. 

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Membres des comités de jumelage
© Yannick Billioux