Eleftheria Pertzinidou

Town twinning is a multi-purpose tool, which aims to enhance people-to-people contacts, to build sustainable bridges within the civil society and between public authorities and civil society organisations. The involvement of local authorities allows for bottom-up solutions that are more participatory and closer to citizens’ needs. Local authorities have an important role to play with respect to the implementation of the EU standards and policies. Through town twinning projects, local administrations in Turkey work together with peers in the EU to find common solutions to common problems and stimulate dialogue and eradicate prejudices. They bring together stakeholders from different backgrounds and various locations within the EU and Turkey. As such, they create synergies ultimately offering  better services to all citizens.