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Eurocapitales:
Our work is incomplete if confined to the London or UK political scene. CLEG has, accordingly, worked closely for a few years now with our counterparts in Paris and elsewhere - to establish the Eurocapitales network, which brings together committed Europeans from the capital cities of Europe into a partnership and will create opportunities to learn from one another's experience - particularly of capital city government.
With this in view, an annual meeting of the network - focusing on a theme of common concern - now takes place, usually in the autumn:
2002 Paris - inner city security
2003 Helsinki - environment and quality of life
2004 Stuttgart - regional government
2005 Paris - i) European citizenship; ii) comparative health services
2006 Lisbon - i) the European social model; ii) mobility of labour
2007-8 Budapest - preserving the built heritage
2008 Helsinki (28th-30th November).
The Eurocapitales network is chaired by Tibor Asbóth on behalf of Budapest, hosts for the 2007-8 meeting (25th-27th January 2008). The chairmanship rotates every year according to which city is host for the ensuing annual meeting. Helsinki will therefore be taking over in due course
Áine McGuire (chairman) and Richard Wassell (vice-chairman) represented CLEG at Lisbon (13th-15th Oct 2006) - and both were amongst the speakers.
Eurocapitales also encourages bi/trilateral visits and projects amongst member cities. CLEG has taken part in one such - to Paris in conjunction with Eiropas Kustiba, the EM of Riga. The main subject for study was transport/urban development; but the opportunity was also taken to compare perspectives on the then proposed European constitution.
Seventeen European capital cities - plus certain regional capitals - are now involved in the network.
For further details on Eurocapitales, please contact Richard Wassell, CLEG vice-chairman.
NB the Eurocapitales website, although operational, does not yet quite reflect the network as it now is.
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