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Introduction I would like to introduce you to city twinning - or as you call it here in America "Sister cities relations" - not only as a non profit oriented model of international co-operation; but also as a tool of globalisation in itself. The term "globalisation" is very often restricted to the economic world. It's about mergers; stock markets and globally operating companies. But there is another world of globalisation, and that is cities and citizens reaching out to each other on an international basis. In explaining this to you I would like to:
The concept of Twinning So let me start with the concept of twinning. What is twinning? First of all it is international co-operation at a local level. This is very often misunderstood as local politicians trying to make foreign policy. Well, I must admit, that some Mayors probably like that idea and accept this role very eagerly. But this is not the idea of twinning. Twinning is not citizens and local politicians competing with their foreign politicians. Twinning is not foreign policy. Twinning is co-operation within the competencies of local government. Twinning is co-operation in areas which are of local concern. The second key-word in the concept of twinning is "people-to-people-exchange". Now, this is indeed a very broad concept of involvement: it is not restricted to institutions, or experts or age-groups. As a matter of fact everybody living in the community is addressed and is regarded as a player in the twinning relationship. Twinning relies very much on private initiative and everybodys determination to make use of the opportunities created by the twinning arrangement. Another important feature in the concept of twinning is: Learning-understanding-developing. Twinning is about learning that there are different cultures, traditions and values. Learning is a precondition for understanding. Understanding of different approaches to solu-tions; understanding of different ways of thinking. That leads eventually and hopefully to a situation, where people start to question their own concept of how things should be done and have to be done; it leads them to accept variety and learn to live with variety. So twinning is an "educational programme" designed to fight parochialism and mental stub-bornness. The existing network The twinning movement is really a global movement. It is unknown how many twinnings ex-ist on a world wide basis. Nobody ever counted it. But it is for sure, that twinning is known and practised world wide. The Twinning movement is particularly popular in Europe. The Council of European Munici-palities and Regions (CEMR) has counted 14.000 Twin-Cities relations in 1995 in the European Union. Today, and counting Central and Eastern Europe as well, there are probably more than 20.000 Twinnings. In Germany 2.800 municipalities have entered 6.131 twinnings in 17 nations world wide. That means that about 38 % of the 7.500 municipalities with 1.000 and more inhabitants are engaged in twinning. From a German point of view and in terms of twinning, the US is the most important country outside of Europe. There are 159 German-US-Twinnings, this is by far the biggest number outside of Europe. Why Twinning? Now, what are the advantages of Twinning? Especially in today`s world, where travelling and the internet have opened the globe for everybody in a way never experienced before ? Is twinning as the citizens access to the world not on outdated form of co-operation? Well, I wouldn`t be here if the answer was yes! There are at least four reasons why twinning still makes sense and they are:
Insight: It might be true that more people than ever travel as tourist or surf as internet-users around the world. But it is also true, that neither the holiday perspective nor the web-site allow you an insight. Real exchange takes an effort; it means you have to go beyond the surface sort of en-counter of tourists. Twin-city relations offer that sort of insight. Continuity: Twinnings are an institutionalised way of meeting each other and is therefore a permanent link, which is always there. As long as the twinning exists, the citizens of the two cities can't help to be part of it. So it is definitely not a once-off thing. Comprehensibility: Twinning reduces the world to a small place called our sister city. Globalisation is less threat-ening this way. It is rather encouraging to explore the outside world, if it is so measurable. Comprehensibility in this sense is the opposite of complexity. Accessibility Twinning is open for everybody. There is no test, no administration fee, no application form, no membership requirement. If you want to participate you can do so. Twinning in the German-US context In the US-German context twinning can be and should be used as a tool of co-operation and transatlantic dialogue. My impression is, that it could be used more extensively. It is an asset in German-US-relations, which has been neglected. The foundations of German-American relations have dramatically changed within the last ten years. To avoid that America and Europe drift away, one has to provide more opportunities where people can meet and talk to each other. In this scenario twin-cities can play a role. There is already a basis available and that is the existing number of 159 German-American sister cities. German - US twinning is of course not free from problems. German cities complain about the dominance of economic thinking in the US; the American partners have difficulties to under-stand the dominance of cultural and youth exchange in the German concept of twinning. In the US twinning is a means of economic development. US cities approach their partner and the surrounding region with the idea to find potential investors or to pave the way for their local companies into foreign markets. Another aspect of the dominance of economic thinking is that nearly every activity within an existing city relationship depends on sponsoring. That limits from a German point of view potential activities in a twofold way: not everything what the partners would like to do can be done because of lack of a sponsor, and what can be done is very much defined by the attractiveness of the activity to potential sponsors. By contrast the European twinning movement is very much dedicated to youth and cultural exchange as the main feature of twinning. This is mainly due to the fact, that the European twinning movement emerged against the background of World War II and the self-imposed pledge to do everything to make such a tragedy impossible in the future. Cultural and youth exchange were and are regarded as the best fitted tools to serve this aim, because they bring people together, thus building up trust, understanding and tolerance. As a result of this more political basis of twinning in Europe financing twinning is not left solely to the private and business sector. It is quite normal that the state and local authorities contribute financially on a regular basis to twinning activities. The German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) for example provides every year a sum for twinning exchanges which at the moment is about 600.000 German Marks. Most German cities have in their annual budget money allocated to twinning. The figure varies of course very much, but it is not really a question whether the municipality should allocate money to this task. Another difference between Europe and America which causes disturbances is the different level of city-involvement. In Germany as in most European states, twinning is still regarded as a cities - affair. Although a lot of cities have started to involve private associations in the day to day activities, the "official city" (mayor, councillors) still feels responsible for the twin city relation and gets involved. Here a common source of frustration is, that the German Mayor has difficulties to approach his counterpart in the US city. In the US context of twin-ning the official city is not a key player in twinning, it is the local private twinning associa-tion. Therefore he or she is not necessarily involved in the twin-city activities in the broad sense his or her German colleague would be. New approaches The European twinning movement has undergone some fundamental change over the last dec-ade. Although, as already mentioned, the traditional elements of youth and cultural exchange still play an important part , there have been some new elements which broadened the scope of activities and which may be also helpful in the German - US contacts on a local level. More and more cities in Germany feel the need to make twinning more attractive and to make better use of the potential it can offer. In this context "problem related exchanges", solution oriented exchanges" and "interest oriented exchanges" have become key-words for reform. Common to this approach is, that twinning is project and /or expert oriented. For example the meeting of city planners from two or more twin cities to consult on common problems of city development; the meeting of youth officers to debate different strategies to combat drug abuse or youth violence in the cities; the visit of a delegation in the twin city to study an especially successful project of inner city development and so on. The European Union supports to a great degree project oriented co-operation between cities in Europe. Here several cities work together to find solutions to city related problems like congestion, cross-border co-operation and so on. Youth exchanges are no longer just folklore-like meetings but meetings were youngsters follow projects designed according to their own interest. This is a way where the American and the European twinning movement can and should meet. Twinning can and should be used to exchange ideas, to learn from each other and to look for solutions with each others help and experience. It should involve all sectors of the local live, including the city administration. If twinning is used in this sense it is not only an approach to globalisation but a tool of glob-alisation in itself. So let me finish by summarizing what I have said in the following five points:
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