Lutsk and Schweinfurt, Germany, officially became sister cities. The Partnership Agreement was signed by Iryna Chebeliuk, Deputy Mayor of Lutsk, and Sebastian Remelé, Mayor of Schweinfurt, during the visit of the Lutsk City Council delegation to Germany.

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

The Agreement provides for the development of friendly relations and cooperation between partners based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, implementation of useful initiatives and projects and cooperation in areas of common interest.

During the visit, the parties discussed directions for future cooperation. The German side expressed interest in deepening contacts and further support of the Lutsk municipality in the difficult time of the war.

Decentralization reminds that municipalities of Ukraine can use the International Municipal Partnership Guidelines to build communication with foreign municipalities and enter into twinning agreements. These Guidelines offer algorithms and practical advice on establishing a partnership, cases of successful partnerships, practical advice on customs clearance and accounting of various types of assistance that partners can exchange, information on how to choose partners, how to organise the work of competent professionals or division, as well as information on financing, bookkeeping and reporting and a lot of other useful information.

Based on these Guidelines, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine developed the Partnership for Recovery and Development section of the Decentralization national portal, with the support of DECIDE (Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education), a Swiss-Ukrainian project, and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

These Guidelines are based on the methodology of the Council of Europe, City to City Cooperation, and developed by the Council of Europe as part of the Programme “Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine” at the request of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.