1. www.Imatra.fi Jukka Laiho City Twins Association Background  The idea to establish association originates from the City Twins’ project - The project ends but city twins’ stay!  The city twins are the model of across-the-border-cooperation, intercultural life and dialogue. They are essential parts of the network.  The citizens in twin cities share own knowledge about the life on both sides of the border - this knowledge must be utilized, developed and strengthened in Europe  Project partners Imatra (Lead partner) – Svetogorsk (RUS), Tornio (FIN) - Haaparanta (SWE), Görlitz (GER) - Zgorzelec (POL), Frankfurt an der Oder (GER) - Slubice (POL), Narva (EST) - Ivangorod (RUS) will establish the association together with some other city twins  The association is open for every city twin, organization and person  The association’s general task is to look after the interests of all bi -national towns in Europe and to promote multicultural aspects, civil society and civil participation  The association is non- partisan and non – profit - making organization  The only obligation for the members is to pay membership fee The association must be legally competent and that is why it must have a permanent place of residence and rules

2. www.Imatra.fi Jukka Laiho City Twins Association Tasks  To promote civil society and participation of citizens  To promote good neighborhood and multi- cultural aspects  To overcome obstacles, which hinder citizens from mutual cooperation  To develop innovative partnerships with new partners and major events mobilizing citizens in the context of intercultural dialogue.  To develop transnational dimension.  To pay particular attention to building bridges between members  To proceed development of synergies between the various activities carried out by members  To network between different kinds of stakeholders.  To foster close friendly relations  To encourage the exchange of representatives of youth, school, cultural and other associations,  To exchange ideas and to work for the peace and welfare of the citizens.  To promote mutual respect, fellow feeling and understanding  To organize meetings with involvement of local government and administration, cultural, commercial and spiritual life and the promotion of exchanges of all kinds.  To provide a forum for the creation and management of multi-partner projects and presentations of best practices To proceed multi-annual projects, pooling of experience between local projects of different members  To manage and coordinate projects related to the tasks of the association

3. www.Imatra.fi Jukka Laiho Other principles  Membership would be open to all bi-national cities and any person or organization  The association seeks for a public utility and it is a non profit and non partisan organization  Membership involves being informed of activities in good time and with timely reminders, so that involvement is encouraged and supported from the widest range of participants.  Funding for the association will come from a variety of sources: grants from municipal bodies, sponsorship from commercial bodies, charitable grants and donations, agency fees from projects, fees from participants  A programme of regular multi-partner activities will be planned (e.g. rotating sports festivals, art exhibitions, trade fairs etc)  It will aim to be creative in stimulating ideas for international activity in line with different programmes of the EU and e.g. the "Citizens for Europe" programme.  Once a year there will be organized a conference under some title close to members  The association collaborates with municipal authorities, as well as individuals and organizations.  In order to bear juridical responsibility the association must have a permanent place of residence  If the registered office is in Imatra the association is constituted under Finnish law  The idea is that the chairmanship will rotate so that every member town will chair the association for one year at a time  The members will pay membership fee for the membership. The board of trustees defines the membership fee.  The association has a board of trustees- 8-10, who manages and governs the association. The aim is that they should be chosen to reflect the international, municipal, commercial and voluntary community groups of the participating towns. The idea is to establish the association in the final conference 12. -13.12.2006 in Imatra