MEANING - Metropolitan Europeans in Active Network, Inducing Novelties in Governance is the name of the new project in which ALDA will actively participate in the next two years. ALDA will be cooperating with Città Metropolitana di Milano and Città Metropolitana di Bari (Italy), Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (Spain), Métropole de Lyon (France), Grad Zagreb (Croatia), Riga City Council (Latvia) and Área Metropolitana do Porto (Portugal) to foster citizens’ participation and good governance at the metropolitan level. 

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In many countries, centralised powers are progressively being devolved to the metropolitan level through institutional reforms and incentivised cooperation schemes in an effort to empower city-regions to better respond to local needs and to increase efficiency. Metropolitan areas are strategic components of diverse regional and national systems across Europe, and as such are central to a prosperous European future. 

This is why, for the first time, ALDA has decided to be an active partner in an initiative aimed at empowering citizens in metropoles – a new, fundamental sphere of the local dimension. The objective of MEANING is precisely that of bringing together metropolitan cities from all over Europe sharing similar agendas and issues to work towards the achievement of a better governance for the benefit of the people living in them.

The project, through participative national and international events involving both citizens and policy-makers, as well as through interactive and multimedia tools (including questionnaires, a website, a movie and a final publication) will also promote a stronger sense of European identity in Metropolitan cities, foster inclusion and integration among their inhabitants and improve their knowledge of European and local institutions. 

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Further information about MEANING can be found on ALDA’s website.

SOURCE: http://www.alda-europe.eu