To Unite Efforts at the Level of International Partnership: Mayors of Twin Cities of Nancy, Karlsruhe and Vinnytsia Meet with Representatives of Public Opinion

They talked about what unites them. On May 11, the mayors of the three twin cities of Nancy, Karlsruhe, and Vinnytsia - Mathieu Klein, Frank Mentrup, and Serhii Morhunov - met with the leaders and representatives of a number of NGOs in our community. The main purpose of the meeting was to get acquainted and develop possible vectors of international partnership in a so-called horizontal plane - at the level of civil society.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Serhii Morhunov noted that the City of Meanings Hub, which was created in Vinnytsia, was the first such platform in Ukraine where NGOs had the opportunity to hear and see each other, to unite to implement joint projects, including in close communication with the city authorities. The City of Meanings network was formed on the basis of the Hub, which currently includes 68 civil society organizations. According to him, they make up a powerful public sector - "they are really effective and really work."

Representatives of such associations, who attended the meeting, had the opportunity to present information stands and tell in detail about their activities. This includes volunteering, work with veterans and their families, as well as families of those killed or missing, building civil society, and everything related to legal education and support for vulnerable people.

"In fact, on this platform, civil society organizations have found common ground with each other to solve their problems and generally help the city within the framework of their activities. And the main thing is that such cooperation gives a positive result. I am convinced that it is very important for both the city and the citizens' associations to establish contacts and communication with Karlsruhe and Nancy, because this is an example of horizontal relations at the partnership level," said Serhii Morhunov. "The dynamics of relations between our cities is developing incredibly rapidly. I would like to thank my colleagues for the fact that our specialists are already working on the implementation of the Green Deal, energy saving, critical infrastructure, healthcare, including prosthetics and rehabilitation, rehabilitation of children from families of defenders, families of fallen soldiers, IDPs, low-income families, and inter-university cooperation. In other words, step by step, this very good assistance from them to our territorial community is increasing."

In turn, the leaders of the twin cities thanked for the opportunity to meet with the leaders of public opinion. They say they are impressed by the level of cohesion, mutual understanding and synergy of efforts in Vinnytsia at all levels: city, society, NGOs - the way everyone works for a common goal. They also assured us that they would not slow down the pace of international cooperation.

In particular, the Mayor of Karlsruhe Frank Mentrup expressed interest in establishing ties with IDPs, and the Mayor of Nancy Mathieu Klein expressed readiness to develop a dialogue in the field of orthopedics. He also offered to hold a meeting on an online platform with NGOs from Vinnytsia and his city to identify other promising areas of work. In this regard, the participants of the meeting made a reciprocal proposal - to organize a Forum of the three twin cities for the same purpose.