The Vinnytsia City Council applied for the Executive Committee of the Vinnytsia City Council to join the European Association of Local Democracy (ALDA). The official application was signed by Deputy Mayor Halyna Yakubovych and the General Secretary of ALDA, Antonella Valmorbida.

This is reported by the official website of the Vinnytsia City Council.

ALDA brings together more than 350 members from more than 40 countries of the world, operating in most countries of the European Union and European neighbouring countries of the EU. The organisation is the main “bridge” between the city council and civil society. It also helps the city and NGOs implement various socially important programmes with the involvement of international partners and donors.

According to Halyna Yakubovych, the powers of the Executive Committee of the Vinnytsia City Council include public engagement, in particular cooperation with Vinnytsia-based NGOs and activists. This facilitates joint decision-making aimed, in one way or another, at the development of the Vinnytsia community.

“In 2012, the City Council launched a targeted programme to provide financial support to civil society institutions for the implementation of social and cultural projects. Over the years, public associations together with the executive bodies of the Vinnytsia City Council have implemented 128 ideas in the Vinnytsia urban municipality,” said the deputy mayor.

The City Council thanked ALDA for their interest in working with the municipality of Vinnytsia. And the Office, which is to be opened shortly, will make cooperation even more fruitful and create more opportunities to attract international and foreign donors to the implementation of socially important projects.

Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of ALDA, named three priorities in the work of their organisation in Vinnytsia: participatory democracy (combination of direct and representative democracy), digitalisation, civil society and community strengthening.

“The main goal of our association is to promote effective governance and citizen participation at the local level. In order to effectively manage and involve citizens at the local level, ALDA deals with issues such as European integration, decentralisation, public initiatives and volunteering, human rights and sustainable economic development. Every day, we develop projects with our members to support their activities for the benefit of the whole community. We are experts in identifying all possible means (EU funds, partnerships, charity, etc.) to facilitate our work and the work of our participants,” said Antonella Valmorbida.

The application of the Vinnytsia City Council to join the Association will be considered in June at the meeting of the Governing Board of the European Association for Local Democracy.