This is a continuation of bilateral cooperation between Polish, Norwegian and Icelandic local governments.

'The experience from the “Local Development” Programme has been extremely positive and the donors of the programme have proposed that savings generated at the national level under various operational programmes in ministries and government agencies, e.g. in PARP (en. Polish Agency for Enterprise Development), should be allocated to continue the cooperation between Polish and Norwegian cities in the form of the so-called ‘Bilateral Initiative’, says Tomasz Potkański, Deputy Director of the Association of Polish Cities’ Office.

The 1st of April of this year marked the start of the planning period for this project, which will last until the 28th of February of the following year. Under the Bilateral Initiative, cities will be able to receive €60,000 each to continue the Polish-Norwegian and Polish-Icelandic meetings, visits and workshops. The project involves 53 Polish cities that participated in Phases II and III of the Local Development Programme under the EEA and NMF 2014-2021. The activities under the Initiative create also a bridge to the new financial perspective of the EEA and NMF.

What activities are planned for the ongoing project year? APC continues to organise the Local Development Forum seminars, which are widely popular among local government officials. In the current project, their topics will concern the Norwegian experience in solving the problems of greatest importance faced by cities. One such new topic, which has already been taken up by the Association, is the Norwegian experience in organising civil defence at the local government level.

One of the activities launched under the completed Local Development Programme was the meetings of the EMPIRIE Experience Exchange Networks. Four of these networks continue their work in the ‘Bilateral Initiative’ project, this time also with the participation of representatives of Norwegian self-governments.

Study visits and internships will also be organised in Norway and Iceland for Polish local government officials as well as in Poland for representatives of Norwegian and Icelandic local government units.

Preparations are currently underway to host a group of 40 Norwegian and Icelandic local government officials in Polish cities at the end of September. The Association of Polish Cities has already invited the 53 participating cities to take advantage of this opportunity. All the more so, since such Polish-Norwegian and Polish-Icelandic relations have already been established in previous years: 17 cities had found Norwegian and Icelandic partners in the course of the Local Development Programme and had a possibility to exchange experiences with them, while representatives of 12 Polish cities had the opportunity to participate in internships in Norwegian local governments and study visits.

This was an inspiring experience for both Polish and Norwegian local government officials. One of the conclusions from those meetings and cooperation was a postulate by Norwegian officials to organise similar internships and study visits for them in Poland in the future, so that they could take a closer look at numerous good practices they heard about from their Polish colleagues.

The current implementation of the Bilateral Initiative 2024 - 2025 allows APC to respond to this demand and increase the number of Polish local governments that have the opportunity to engage in bilateral cooperation. All costs of the guests' stay in the Polish cities will be financed by the project.

On the photo: Representatives of Polish cities participating in a study visit to Trondheim and Levanger, Norway, in 2023 as part of the ‘Local Development’ Programme. Photo: APC archives