The General Meeting of the Association of the Cities Awarded The Prize of Europe - Ratyzbon

The General Meeting of the Association of the Cities Awarded The Prize of Europe took place on 22 June 2001 in Ratyzbon, Germany. The meeting was chaired by Wiesław Maras, the President of Częstochowa.

from the left: W.L.Gifford - mer Royal Lamington Spa, E. Nicholson - mer Cockermouth, W.Maras - prezydent Częstochowy, G.Weber - burmistrz Regensburga, d. Schmidt - burmistrz Braunfels

Representatives of The Council of Europe participated in the meeting (Benno Zierer, the Vice-president of The Prize of Europe Subcommittee, Anne Meneger, the Director of The Prize of Europe Sector, mayors and their representatives from Bordeaux, Braunfels, Bursy, Darmstadt, Graz, Cockermouth, Klagenfurt, Marvejols, Passau, Ratyzbon, Royal Leamington Spa, Spayer, Udine and Częstochowa.

President Maras presented to the participants the course of the Presidium meeting in Royal Leamington Spa. He issued a request to complete the data on the Internet page of The Association: www.częstochowa.um.gov.pl/europeprize, and suggested that computer specialists from The Council of Europe created a link in the server of The Council of Europe to the Internet page of The Association. In this way more people would have access to our information.

It was agreed with the Director of The Prize of Europe Sector that a brochure of the Cities Awarded The Prize of Europe will be introduced to the Internet at the end of the year. President Maras proposed recording a videotape or DVD with the material concerning European integration, which would be an excellent way of promoting The Association of the Cities Awarded the Prize of Europe. The material should be prepared by young people. The most interesting video-clips would be broadcast on TV. At present talks with Euronews, Arte, Channel 1 of Polish TV, and TV Katowice are pending.

It was settled that the next meeting of The Association Presidium would take place in October in Klagenfurt. It would be devoted to the summary of The Associations activities and to the preparation of the agenda of the General Meeting in Bursa next year. The theme agreed upon is as follows: 'Tourism in old cities as a chance for new places of work) Discussed were also activities of European character in cities participating in the meeting (exchanges in the areas of sport, education and culture). Next presented was St. POELTEN, the city most recently awarded with the Prize of Europe, which gained Grand Prix in particular for partnership co-operation and creation of means for co-operation between European towns. David Bertram from Cockermouth informed the participants that he was awarded the title of the Member of the British Empire by the Queen of England for his actions thanks to which European towns are twinned with one another. It proves that work for European integration and cities partnership is highly praised.

At the time of the General Meeting another important event took place in Regensburg, namely an international forum of young people which was devoted to the following theme 'Present cultural development of young people - visions of young people's culture'. It has become a tradition that The General Meeting is accompanied by the common debate and reflection on a particular topic that is important to all the cities. Last year in Częstochowa fighting pathologies was discussed, how councils could counteract drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and petty crime. The conference in Ratyzbon was devoted to culture in European cities - heredity and responsibility of councils in this area. The cities presented their own ideas, achievements and solutions in preservation of cultural monuments.