Call Town Twinning 2025

Objective

The programme helps to promote intercultural dialogue by bringing people of different nationalities and different languages together and giving them the opportunity to participate in common activities. In this context, Town-Twinning projects will raise awareness of the richness of Europe's cultural and linguistic environment and promote mutual understanding and respect, contributing to the development of a respectful, dynamic and multifaceted European identity and the respect of common values, democracy and fundamental rights.

In view of this overall objective, the projects may address the following topics (the list is not exhaustive):

- The EU is built on solidarity: solidarity between its citizens, solidarity across borders between its Member States, and solidarity through support actions in and beyond the EU. Solidarity is a shared value that creates cohesion and responds to societal challenges. Town-Twinning projects will help to overcome national perceptions by fostering mutual understanding and by creating fora where common solutions can be discussed in a constructive way. Their aim should be to raise awareness of the importance of reinforcing the European integration process based on solidarity and EU values;

- Town-Twinning projects will give citizens the opportunity to express what kind of Europe they want. Debates supported under the Town-Twinning measure should be based on the EU's specific achievements and on lessons learnt from history and from European integration. They should also reflect on current trends, and enable participants to challenge euroscepticism and to suggest possible actions that the EU could take to foster a sense of belonging to Europe, to increase an understanding of the benefits of the EU and to reinforce the EU's social and political cohesion.

Projects aiming at benefiting not only the direct participants but also the citizens of the participating towns are particularly encouraged, as these can help to multiply the practical experience of the richness and diversity of the common heritage of the Union. Also, there may be a general, but not exclusive, reflection on any impact the COVID-19 pandemic may have had on life within the applicants’ local communities, on the way in which their communities function and on the forms that civic participation and solidarity took in the applicants’ towns under the COVID-19 crisis and how these forms could become sustainable in the future. Projects may also draw inspiration from or be related to the New European Bauhaus initiative.