CONNECT just presented at the 5th Assises of decentralised cooperation

11 July 2017

PLATFORMA and its partner VNG International presented CONNECT during a session at the European Committee of the Regions flagship event on city-to-city and region-to-region cooperation on 11 July in Brussels.

Recently returning from a CONNECTion with the Pursat municipality in Cambodia, Helga Jóhanna Oddsdottir, advisor at the Municipality of Sandgerði (Iceland) shared her experiences on how entering into direct cooperation within CONNECT, a new and practical match-making mechanism created by PLATFORMA and VNG International, and supported by the European Commission.

Peter Knip, Director of the International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG International) and Wouter Boesman, Policy Director of PLATFORMA, explained that CONNECT is one of the most recent innovations in international cooperation between local and regional governments.

Pok Sokundara, Secretary General of the National League of Communes (Sangkats) of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said that this concrete example makes very clear to the local and regional governments from Europe and partner countries what CONNECT could mean for them. He invited all municipalities to participate to CONNECT.

Discover more about CONNECT on the dedicated webpage, leaflet and video.

Other innovations on decentralised cooperation

During this session on the “Review of recent trends in decentralised cooperation”, Agustí­ Losada, expert, presented a study entitled “Shaping a new generation of decentralised cooperation for enhanced effectiveness and accountability”, drafted for the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) and PLATFORMA. This study will soon be published.

Mary Gely, PhD at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, presented her French case study: “Why local governments decide to implement actions on the international scene: from expected to real impacts”.

Finally, PLATFORMA and its partners were also present in several sessions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their localisation, climate change or territorial development.

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