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The first Hungarian-Bavarian twinning conference was organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development in Esztergom (northern Hungary), and an exhibition of Hungarian and Bavarian settlements took place in the Saint Adalbert Theological Center in parallel.
In his welcome speech, Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér said that the end of the communist regime (1989) had given a great impetus to the establishment of twinning relations, and that the 120 people who registered for the conference included professional organizations involved in fostering Hungarian-German relations. He called on the audience to involve young people in fostering town twinning relations, with a special focus on bilingual schools.
Tibor Navracsics, Hungary’s Minister of Public Administration and Regional Development, stressed that for local authorities, maintaining twinning relations still partly means not only maintaining identity, but also cultural traditions. He added that Europe is mainly built on these local communities, on the common traditions and on the common elements of our cultural heritage. Major initiatives such as the European cities network (Eurocities), the Erasmus student exchange program, and the European Capitals of Culture program are also based on this, he said.
#Hungarian–#Bavarian Sister City Conference in Esztergom with Joachim Herrmann, Minister of the Interior, Sports and Integration of Bavaria.
We agreed that we need to strenghten our #cultural and #economic #cooperations. pic.twitter.com/QPI7idWxOz
— Tibor Navracsics (@TNavracsicsEU) May 10, 2024
Speaking at the conference, Joachim Herrmann, Minister of the Interior, Sports, and Integration of the state of Bavaria, recalled that Europe has been without war for almost 80 years, and since 1990, we have been living in a free community, in an ever closer Europe. “We have achieved this with democracy, the rule of law, freedom, free parliamentary elections, not dictatorial regimes from the right or the left,” he said. He added that it is part of democracy that different political parties can debate with each other, but it must be recognized that good cooperation is the key to the future, which is why elections are so important in shaping the future of Europe.
Joachim Herrmann (left). Photo: Facebook/Navracsics Tibor
Herrmann added that
77,000 Hungarians live in Bavaria and most of them really feel at home there, with some 1,500 companies in the province having intensive business links with Hungary.
After the welcome speeches, the audience was given the opportunity to participate in a professional forum, where several partner municipalities reported on the development of their relations and a presentation was given on the potential of Hungarian-German youth relations.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Visit Esztergom