The conference LORIS 2007 contributed to further development of twinning collaboration between European towns

04/05/2007, Prague, Česky

The international conference LORIS (Local and Regional Information Society), which was held concurrently with the ISSS conference (Internet in Public Administration and Self-government) in the Congress Centre Aldis in Hradec Králové, significantly contributed to further development of mutual collaboration between European towns. There met deputies of more than two tens of towns here. They exchanged experience, formed new contacts and discussed about development of e-government at the local and regional level, as well as about use of EU sources for further enhancement of collaboration at the level of towns or development of e-tourism. The main organizer of the conference was Vysočina Region and financing was shared by the European Commission within the programme TT on the grounds of a call for "Support of active European citizenship" of Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. The Czech Republic was represented among the participating towns and regions for example by capital Prague, towns Jihlava, České Budějovice, Hradec Králové, Karviná, Litovel, Nový Jičín, Znojmo or Otrokovice. Among partner European towns there were of course present Slovakian capital Bratislava and towns Nitra, Moldava nad Bodvou, Banská Bystrica, Dubnica nad Váhom, Kremnica, Martin, Nová Dubnica, Púchov and Trenčín, Hungarian towns Budapešť, Encs, Karcag, Nyiregyháza, Polish towns Warsaw, Walbrzych, Wroclaw, Lithuanian Vilnius or Dutch Purmerend.

The programme of the conference LORIS 2007 did not consist only of discussions and meetings between towns, a special stress was laid also on examples of good practice and presentations of successful projects. In the project laboratory in the Elizabeth Hall there were presented examples of working town-twinning cooperation--between Bratislava and Prague and Vienna, between Slovakian Moldava nad Bodvou and Hungarian towns Encs and Karcag or another project of Prague, Bratislava and Vienna eContent plus. In the project laboratory on the first floor there were presented projects of Otrokovice and Slovakian Dubnica or collaboration of deputies of cities Prague, Bratislava and Wroclav Junior Internet.

In the course of the conference there took place also a number of meetings of deputies of partner towns, at which there was discussed development of existing collaboration and preparation of common projects. One of such successful meeting was for example discussion between deputies of Jihlava and a Dutch town Purmerend.

According to the words of Miloš Vystrčil, President of Vysočina Region, "the international LORIS conference is annually a unique opportunity to exchange international experience. A close connection with the national conference ISSS and in the last four years also with a working meeting of Visegrád countries V4DIS enables for a few days to concentrate in one place a whole number of personalities, experts, visions as well as examples from the practice. This is then logically found beneficial by all who collaborate on creating information society not only in the Czech Republic, but also in a number of other countries in Europe."

The results of meetings of the international conference LORIS 2007, an overview of current bonds between European towns taking part in the programme of town-twinning as well as the conclusions of the international conference LORIS 2007 were available also for the two thousands of participants of the simultaneously held national conference ISSS. In the following weeks the information will be further disseminated through concerned European initiatives and networks such as for example Telecities-Eurocities, ELANET-CEMR or Global Cities Dialogue.