LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS OF EUROPE MEET IN ISTANBUL IN BROTHERHOOD

“Workshop of the Town Twinning Programme” organized within the scope of the ““İstanbul on the Path to EU Project” which is supported by the Ministry for European Union Affairs and implemented in cooperation with Istanbul Governorate, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the Union of Municipalities of Turkey was inaugurated with the participation of the Minister for European Union Affairs and the Chief Negotiator, Egemen Bagis.

Delivering a speech at the inauguration meeting, Bagis said that Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire and had also been the capitals of Roman and Byzantine Empires which had shaped the European culture. Bagis declared that Istanbul had also been the European capital of culture and the European capital of sports and he said: “We emphasize Istanbul as our most important strength and our trump card when explaining the reasons necessitating Turkey’s accession. EU without Istanbul would be rather incomplete and poor”.

Town Twinning Programme aims to enable that the district administrations of Istanbul share knowledge and experience with their EU counterparts, regarding the implementation of the EU acquis in local administrations and enable them to make joint projects with their counterparts. Besides the districts of Istanbul, local administrators from Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Greece and Spain also attended the workshop which ended in 24 May.