Origin of City Diplomacy: Town Twinning in the Europe

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reciprocative and commercial approaches. Associative refers to “establish relations with other cities around the globe were based upon notions of international friendship, cultural exchange and a general international awareness”; reciprocative conceptualized from “the growth of an educational exchanges system that helped to broaden and development the sister city movement”; and the final stage, commercial is “an attempt to take advantage of the process to further their local economic aims.”

These three stages do not been listed in sequence but interlinking approaches.

Cremer et al. (2001) further expanded the debates and developed the hybrid approach,

‘municipal-community entrepreneurship’ which suggested the distinguishing feature for viable and successful sister city relationship required significant community activism for the mutual advantages of economic and social actors in both cities.

It is not difficult to discover from the above elaboration that exchanges of sister cities have shifted from the traditional cultural understanding and peace advocating to local economic development. Nevertheless, relevant researches are few and far between and mainly take cities in the western countries as instances, and may not provide the whole picture of the evolution of city diplomacy. There are many other practical initiatives among cities waiting to be explored. However, town twinning initiatives/sister city movements are still the most representative phenomenon of city diplomacy due to peaceful atmosphere pursued by the western countries since the end of WWII.

2.1.2 Origin of City Diplomacy: Town Twinning in the Europe

The first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord in Nord, France, in 1920 following the end of the First World War. The practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to promote mutual

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understanding and cross-border projects of mutual benefit.⁶ The flourishing period of development of city diplomacy can be traced back to town twinning among border towns between France and Germany since the end of WWII. It was thought that if people of different nations got to know and understand each other on a personal level by meeting in their normal environments, even their private homes, then the horrors of war would never be repeated. The aftermath of WWII provided an ideal climate for the European countries to reconcile rival relations of the past. (Mascitelli, 2008) One of the most important factors for improving relations between France and Germany is the two sides were willing to face their historical issues with honest and fair attitude, not only the national political leaders of two countries make efforts for closer security and economic ties, but city mayors, city councilmen as well as local private sectors, attempted to create a healthy environment through binational exchanges, town twinning. A large number of town twinning initiatives between towns on either side of Rhine therefore developed as a significant mechanism to improve hostile atmosphere in Europe. (Campbell, 1987)

Since the 1950s, European integration has seen the development of a supranational system of governance. There are two fundamental goals in the years of European reconstruction: protecting the right of individual and of the community and creating a new atmosphere of Franco-German cooperation under the European framework.

(Campbell, 1987) Local leaders in Europe learned the lesson from the inter-war period that the primary interest for people was peace. Town twinning initiatives under the concept of European integration have had gradually emerged for bolstering mutual understanding and restoring their torn relationships. (Joenniemi, 2011)

The post-war initiative to improve Franco-German relations originated in Switzerland

6 "Town twinning in the UK and Germany". East Street Arts. Retrieved 2015-03-03, https://wygoveryonder.wordpress.com/about-town-twinning-in-the-uk-and-germany/

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through two Swiss scholars, Dr. Eugen Wyler and Dr. Hans Zbinden by calling a conference of French and German city mayors, Franco-German Mayors Committee at Mont Pelerin on Lake Geneva in June 1948. Initially, the meeting was not going well due to mistrust of two sides, until the third conference in May 1950 in Paris, the Mayors Committee was transformed into the International Mayors Union for Franco-German Understanding and European Cooperation (IBU), which was formally set up for the aim of promoting the European unity, the idea of development of friendly relations by various city-to-city and person-to-person cooperation among its members cities, namely town twinning initiatives therefore spread out. (Campbell, 1987)

Slightly later than the IBU, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) established in January 1951 with supports of sixty-eight city mayors and city officials from eight European countries. However, the central idea of the CEMR differed from the IBU. Unlike IBU taking Franco-German cooperation as essential precondition before Europe integration and emphasizing on affiliations building only between French and German border cities, the CEMR; on the other hand, paid more attention to city partnerships in all European member countries without different country priority. Nowadays, CEMR is still an active and broadest European association of local and regional government which has more than 150,000 local-government members from 14 European countries. (CEMR, n.d.)

According to CEMR’s statistics on town twinnings in Europe in 2010, there are 2,281 ties between France and Germany, far ahead of the second place, UK and France (1,065) and the third place, Poland and Germany (1,021). (see Table 2-1) Town twinning affiliations between France and Germany are closer than those with other European countries. Besides, France and German have in total 6,776 and 6,048 town twinnings respectively, which are far more than the second place country, Poland

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(3,508) and other European countries. Town twinning has initiated among border cities between France and German and now is spreading out to the wide Europe since WWII. Until the end of 2010, there are in total 39,508 town twinnings in the European Union (EU). The data demonstrate that town twinning between France and German is more active than between other European members. Not surprisingly due to their unique political history and geographical position in Europe, the two countries have kept their leading position in town twinning development since the 1950s. Until today, the town twinning movement is still thriving and plays an important role under the structure of European unity.

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Table 2-1: The Number of Twinnings in Europe in 2010

Source: Council of European Municipalities and Regions, Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.twinning.org/uploads/assets/news/Number%20of%20twinnings%20in%20Europe

%20in%202010.pdf

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European Union (EU) plays an important role in promoting town twinning. In fact, the initial motivation of establishment of EU is to rebuild Europe after WWII, as well as concerns about Europe will once again fall into the quagmire of war. Within Europe, town twinning is supported by the EU. The support scheme was established in 1989. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) also work closely with the European Commission (DG Education and Culture) to promote twinning initiatives and exchanges. The European Commission continuing provided long-term funding to support town-twinning movement as an important bridge to bring cities within the Europe closer. Today, European countries faced with certain social tensions, such as economic depression, racial discrimination and religious hostility. Now the EU takes the citizenship as an important element in strengthening civic participation through the "Europe for Citizens" program for the period 2007-2013, which aims to repair fragmented European society with a wide range of activities and organizations promoting ‘active European citizenship’ (European Commission, n.d.). Town twinning has undergone a near-metamorphosis in the recent past, reflecting its position in an ever more rapidly changing world. Yet it is still thriving and has retained all its original values.