German-Greek Assembly

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German-Greek Assembly

The German - Greek Assembly (DGV) is a network of Greek and German municipalities, regions, civil society and business. The DGV is a bilateral initiative without legal personality and works on a non-partisan basis. The aim is to deepen German-Greek relations at the local and regional level and to strengthen the European community. The DGV is based on an agreement between the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the former Greek Prime Minister Giorgos A. Papandreou on March 5, 2010.

On the German side, the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Hans-Joachim Fuchtel , Member of the Bundestag , was appointed the first representative for the DGV. In April 2018, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Norbert Barthle MdB, took over the office of the Federal Chancellor's personal representative for the DGV.

Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Member of the Bundestag

“ The foundation for sustainable and constructive municipal cooperation between Greece and Germany has been laid. From the abundance of possibilities, it is now a matter of clearly defining the fields for both countries. The aim is to make all activities efficient and sustainable . "

Berlin, October 1st, 2018,

Norbert Barthle, Member of the Bundestag

The approach of the German-Greek Assembly is unique in Europe. It is based on the idea of ​​connecting people through questions and topics of life in a community that are important for both countries.

Greek and German representatives from municipalities and regions, civil society, associations, science and business have been discussing and developing models since 2011 to promote sustainable development at local level in both countries. Continuous dialogue and joint projects open up new fields of permanent cooperation.

Ways for cooperation are specialist conferences, workshops and expert assignments on all topics related to communal life. There are now more than 60 partnerships in various areas of social and economic life.

The work of the DGV was awarded the Carl Goerdeler Prize in Leipzig in 2016 as the best municipal approach in the European spectrum. Overall, the DGV has become an integral part of the bilateral relationship with Greece. The challenges of intercultural communication are obvious: Language barriers, financial hurdles and a different understanding of administrative structures. However, the work of the DGV has shown that this approach can set new standards.

Institutional links and committees

Institutionally, the DGV works in Germany with the municipal umbrella organizations, in Greece with the Central Association of Greek Cities and Towns (KEDE) and the Council of Governors (ENPE).

The DGV has a coordination office in Berlin and a DGV office in Athens and Thessaloniki .

The annual conferences are an important instrument . They take place alternately in Germany and Greece. The conferences are the platform for the mutual exchange of experiences. This links connections and strengthens the DGV network. The chambers , professional associations, universities, research institutes, political foundations and voluntary civil society organizations are involved in these conferences . The result of the annual conference is a joint declaration, which defines the focus of work for the next year.

DGV representative and development of the network

On the German side, the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, Member of the Bundestag, was appointed as the first representative for the DGV. After six years of activity, he was followed in April 2018 by Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Norbert Barthle, Member of the Bundestag.

On the Greek side, Interior Minister Evripidis Stylianidis was initially the representative for the DGV; from October 2018 to April 2019, the Governor of Attica , Ms. Rena Dourou , was the Greek representative for the DGV. The Greek Minister of the Interior, Panagiotis Theodorikakos, has been the DGV's Greek representative since the beginning of 2020.

Development of the DGV network

Annual conference 2018

“From the myth of Europe to a lived Europe” was the motto of the eighth annual conference of the German-Greek assembly in Crete . Mayor Ioannis Mastorakis of the municipality of Hersonissos on Crete and the Cretan governor Stavros Arnaoutakis had invited . From November 1st to 3rd, 2018, more than 300 representatives of the municipal umbrella organizations, governors and vice-governors, chambers and experts from both countries met to find strategies and projects to tackle common challenges in key areas.

The end of the event marked the ceremonial drawing of the final declaration by the representatives of the municipal umbrella organizations of both countries. This defines the fields of action and cooperation for 2019. The signatories advocate “that Europe gets a strong local base in all member states of the Union . Europe needs to focus on one of its most important assets: its cities, municipalities, counties and regions ”. This year the Greek government also sent clear signals for a process of renewal. In a joint declaration at the end of the conference, the importance of the DGV for bilateral cooperation was underlined.

Through the Vice-President of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities Roger Kehle and the director of the Bavarian Municipal Association , Dr. Franz Dirnberger, the invitation to the next annual conference of the German-Greek Assembly (DGV IX) in the large district town of Erding in Bavaria was issued.

Topics of the DGV work

Topics of the DGV
  • Know-how transfer: To the above Topic grid.
  • Dialogue of cultures to solve problems and promote mutual understanding.
  • Citizen participation and civil society mobilize for more personal responsibility and the creation of an active community.
  • Strengthen local self-government by setting up efficient administrative structures.

DGV and energy

Converting street lighting to LED : Greek municipalities have very high costs for street lighting. You are therefore interested in converting to LED. The Greek government is making extensive funds available for this. The experience of German municipalities in converting to LED is in great demand. The Hanover region has informed Greek mayors and experts about the technical variants. The region will continue to act as a point of contact for Greek municipalities. Greek municipalities are starting the retrofitting.

So far, five municipalities have signed corresponding contracts for retrofitting, nine more are being processed, and 30 more have been announced. The savings potential for the municipalities is around EUR 500 million.

In cooperation with CRES, the Institute for Renewable Energy in Greece, and with the support of the DGV, KEDE has submitted two applications to the BMU as part of the European climate initiative . One application concerns the establishment of energy cooperatives and the other application concerns planning for sustainable urban mobility .

DGV and economy

The German-Greek Assembly aims to strengthen the local economy, which is essentially characterized by the smallest and smallest companies (usually 1–10 employees and many family businesses).

The DGV succeeded in bringing ProCredit Bank to Thessaloniki in 2016 . Its aim is to make it easier for small and medium-sized companies to access credit. The balance so far is very positive. This is a noticeable contribution to the development of the economic area in Northern Greece.

Some peripheries are very interested in the concept of the German savings banks, especially the governor of the Peloponnese region . He works closely with the Sparkassenstiftung . It is now up to the Greek government to create the framework for this. The DGV has initiated a framework agreement between chambers, municipalities and regions in both countries to promote the local economy.

The Greek chambers are very interested in the experiences of the German chambers, for example in vocational training. Since June 2017, five welding courses have been held with the Chamber in Heraklion on Crete. In the meantime, the chamber's technical institute has opened a welding specialist center and offers training in several welding methods. The graduates receive an internationally recognized certificate. In total, more than 100 graduates have found work through this professionally challenging measure.

DGV and training

The economy cannot function without good training and professional qualifications. That is why this is a focus of the DGV. The DGV thus makes a contribution to combating youth unemployment.

In the field of practical and technical training, cooperation between the two countries is particularly useful. In close cooperation with the BMBF and the German Chamber of Commerce Athens (AHK), the DGV has set up two vocational schools in the tourism sector, on Crete and in Athens. The three-year job-related training was very well received.

Training of over 50 young people from Corfu in Rostock : Some of the young people who have been trained have returned to Greece and with this qualification have very good chances on the Greek job market.

DGV and tourism

The tourism boom to Greece beats all records. Almost 20 percent of the Greek gross domestic product is generated in tourism and every fourth job in Greece can be assigned to this industry. In almost all DGV partnerships, the exchange of experience is anchored in the development of local and regional concepts for the extension of the season, the acquisition of new target groups and themed and alternative tourism.

In cooperation with the German hiking association, new hiking trails have been certified in five Greek regions, e.g. B. Ursa Trail ( Epirus ). The implementation of supraregional tourism concepts, e.g. B. for motorhome trips and bike tours is also in high demand from the municipalities and is supported in various projects by the DGV.

Strengthening pilgrimage tourism in Greece:

With the inclusion of the ancient site of Philippi in the UNESCO World Heritage Site , pilgrimage tourism received a new impetus. New approaches are being developed and marketed in partnership with the Bavarian Pilgrims Office.

With the adoption of a law to promote thematic tourism in December 2018, the Greek government wants to promote alternative tourism more than before.

There are numerous other initiatives within the individual tourism partnerships. At the ITB 2019, the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Crete region signed an agreement for closer economic cooperation with a focus on tourism.

DGV and agriculture and forestry

Marketing agricultural products is still a major challenge. The same applies here: smallholders alone cannot do this. The DGV supports the formation of cooperatives at the local level and proves this with best practice examples. So are z. B. Representatives of Greek and German cooperatives working closely with the Hanns Seidel Foundation .

A large forest fire destroyed large parts of the tree population on the island of Thassos . The Rottenburg University of Applied Sciences is working together with the University of Thessaloniki on a concept for reforestation.

DGV and waste management

The waste management is one of the biggest problems of the Greek communities. You are responsible for waste management. The Greek municipalities are in close contact with their German partners (cities and districts). Waste management is particularly complex on the Greek islands. Due to tourism, the amount of waste is subject to strong fluctuations.

Other municipalities are developing waste supply systems and facilities, taking into account the exchange of experience with German municipalities and districts, e.g. B. Establishment of recycling centers (central collection points).

The matching process

So that the right partners can be found in Greece and Germany, a so-called “matching process” takes place. In this process, the DGV offices record the profile of the respective municipality, your needs or the desired areas of cooperation and objectives in order to then find the right partner in the other country. The employees of the DGV answer the inquiries and advise, evaluate the profile sheets and coordinate and support this process until the cooperation is substantiated.

The matching process can be initiated from two directions: a Greek municipality contacts one of the DGV offices in Thessaloniki or Athens, or a German municipality contacts the coordinator office in Stuttgart or the DGV cooperation center in Berlin. The interested municipalities enter the information about their profile and their ideas about cooperation in a “profile sheet”. Once the partner has been found, the coordinators at local level arrange for contact to be made. If the key data is correct on both sides, a first visit and a return visit take place and possible activities and projects are discussed.

The “partnership exchange” of the DGV annual conference also offers a good opportunity to establish contact. Both sides can present themselves there and plan the next steps accompanied by DGV employees. At the same time, municipal representatives can see good examples of cooperation at the annual conference and experience the value of cooperation up close.

Excellent examples

During the 8th annual conference of the DGV in Hersonissos on Crete, the following projects were awarded:

  • Fabric bags instead of plastic bags Thassos Island and Reutlingen District In the longstanding collaboration between Thassos Island and Reutlingen District, the issue of waste, and in particular avoidance, has played a central role. In spring 2018, a concrete student exchange on this topic started. The students designed a joint logo in art class. A total of 1000 fabric bags were printed with bilingual appeals. The project was sponsored by the Reutlingen / Tübingen waste disposal association , the Reutlingen district and the manufacturer. An event took place in Thassos, organized by the Lyceum and the community to convey the topic to people and companies. The cloth bags were distributed by the students to retailers, customers and parents.
  • Greek and German young people make music together in the North Aegean region and the Mecklenburg Lake District district. The project was carried out with the help of the BMFSFJ's special program for German-Greek youth exchange. In April 2018, the first joint concert was held in Demmin . There were 80 participants from the German side and 74 from the Greek side. A total of 400 guests attended the concert. In September 2018 the return visit and the second joint concert took place in Mytilene . There were 80 participants from both the German and the Greek side. Greek songs were selected that were translated into German so that they could be sung by all students.
  • Welding course with final examination (certification) IHK Heraklion and the Institute for Vocational Training KEK and SLV Education Centers Rhine-Ruhr and Society for Welding Technology International GSI mbH In 2017, the first course was held in the workshop of the Technical Institute Heraklion. Due to the high demand, the chamber then decided to set up its own specialist welding workshop. A total of 3 courses were running until mid-2018. All graduates were then able to find work.
  • Exchange of administrative staff in the Peloponnese region and the district of Schwäbisch Hall From February to March 2018, an employee of the European office for the Peloponnese region completed an internship at the Schwäbisch Hall district office. Your stay was financed with the help of the Walter Hallstein Program in the Baden-Württemberg Scholarship. The Baden-Württemberg Foundation promotes the Europe-wide exchange of administrative staff. The intern had the opportunity to improve her German at the Goethe-Institut in Schwäbisch Hall and, at the same time, to gain an insight into the administrative practice of the district office. The sponsored project is called “Strengthening friendly relationships”. As part of this project, a first joint event took place in March 2018 in the Schwäbisch Hall district office with the topic "Elections in Europe - we are all concerned". The second counter-event in Tripoli , Peloponnese took place in October 2018.
  • Mathematics Olympiad for young people on the island of Samos and the city of Greifswald In March 2018, nine young people from Greifswald traveled to Samos to take part in a math competition with a Greek youth group. The tasks were put together in advance by experts from both sides and translated into the other language. In mid-September 2018, the Greek students visited their German colleagues. The students were accommodated in host families.

Web links

  1. The "Treasure of the Communes" - a German-Greek success story
  2. Greece, the exchange is progressing
  3. Training initiative with foresight ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. Partnership Corfu - Western Pomerania-Rügen
  5. Sinsheim: Rolf Geinert organizes German-Greek knowledge transfer
  6. City enters into partnership with Greek Oraiokastro
  7. Detmold and Oraiokastro seal new town twinning
  8. Greeks from the island of Paxos visit disposal facilities in the region
  9. German-Greek Assembly: Joint Mayor's Office in Thessaloniki ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  10. Report of the German-Greek Assembly ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. First "German-Greek Assembly" ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. Greece: Second German-Greek assembly in Thessaloniki
  13. The German representative for the DGV visits Athens ( Memento from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  14. DGV: It's about "The City of the Future"
  15. Annual meeting of the DGV
  16. Strong network for the decentralized energy transition in Europe
  17. Leipzig gets German-Greek youth work
  18. GZ interview with Barthle
  19. Crete: welding project, savings banks
  20. STZ interview with Barthle
  21. Pilgrimage: In the footsteps of the Apostle Paul
  22. Joy, beautiful spark of the gods
  23. European friendship: Greek youth visit Tuttlingen
  24. Tourists are the best ambassadors
  25. Hellas in the Hallertau!
  26. New impulses for the "German-Greek Assembly"
  27. State and district associations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b GRDE.EU: About us. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  2. ^ DGV: Report of the German-Greek Assembly. (PDF) In: GRDE.EU. Cooperation center at the Commissioner for the German-Greek Assembly (KS-DGV), July 2014, accessed on August 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ GRDE.EU: Parliamentary State Secretary Norbert Barthle succeeds Parliamentary State Secretary Hans-Joachim Fuchtel as the DGV representative. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ GRDE.EU: Topics. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c DGV : Connecting people and pooling strengths - Annual Report 2018. (PDF) In: GRDE.EU. Cooperation center at the Commissioner for the German-Greek Assembly (DGV), January 2019, accessed on August 7, 2019 .
  6. ↑ GRDE.EU: German-Greek assembly receives the communal political award of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  7. ↑ GRDE.EU: A new dynamic in view of the seventh annual meeting of the DGV. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ GRDE.EU: Organization. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  9. ↑ GRDE.EU: Annual meeting of the DGV. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Elliniki Gnomi: The Commissioner for the German-Greek Assembly, Mr. Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs. In: ELLINIKI GNOMI • The newspaper of the Greeks in Europe. November 12, 2012, Retrieved August 7, 2019 (Greek).
  11. ↑ GRDE.EU: Parliamentary State Secretary Norbert Barthle succeeds Parliamentary State Secretary Hans-Joachim Fuchtel as the DGV representative. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  12. ↑ GRDE.EU: New guidelines for the DGV work and course for the 9th Annual Conference in Erding. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  13. ↑ GRDE.EU: The eighth annual meeting of the German-Greek Assembly from November 1st to November 3rd, 2018 in Crete: Positive signal for the work of the German-Greek Assembly. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  14. ↑ GRDE.EU: VIII. German-Greek Assembly November 01 - 03, 2018. Accessed August 7, 2019 .
  15. ↑ GRDE.EU: The eighth annual meeting of the German-Greek Assembly from November 1st to November 3rd, 2018 in Crete: Positive signal for the work of the German-Greek Assembly. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  16. ^ DGV: Joint declaration of the 8th annual conference of the DGV. (PDF) In: GRDE.EU. German-Greek Assembly, November 3, 2018, accessed August 7, 2019 .
  17. ^ DGV: Ninth Annual Conference of the German-Greek Assembly November 5th to 7th, 2019 Erding, Bavaria. In: GRDE.EU. German-Greek Assembly, accessed August 7, 2019 .
  18. ↑ GRDE.EU: Topics. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  19. ↑ GRDE.EU: More light with Led for the Greek cities. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  20. ↑ GRDE.EU: FAZ: New bank branches in Greece with symbolic value. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  21. ↑ GRDE.EU: "There is light on the horizon". Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  22. ↑ GRDE.EU: Greek young people are doing a welding course with the support of the German-Greek assembly. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  23. ↑ DGV_Film. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  24. ↑ GRDE.EU: New cooperation for the municipalities of Hersonissos and Binz. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  25. ↑ a b GRDE.EU: Best Practice. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  26. ↑ GRDE.EU: Steep increase in hotel bookings in the Kavala region - Philippi - Unesco site of cultural heritage. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  27. ↑ GRDE.EU: Strengthening ALTERNATIVE TOURISM. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  28. ↑ GRDE.EU: ITB 2019 - EOT General Secretary Tsegas and DGV Representative Barthle welcome the memorandum on future cooperation. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  29. ↑ GRDE.EU: Greek cooperative members learn from their German colleagues. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  30. ↑ GRDE.EU: Thassos does not exist without a forest. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  31. ↑ GRDE.EU: Chios and Corfu inform themselves in Germany about modern waste recycling methods. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  32. ↑ GRDE.EU: How can I get involved? Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  33. ↑ GRDE.EU: Greek young people are doing a welding course with the support of the German-Greek assembly. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  34. ↑ GRDE.EU: In the footsteps of PYTHAGORAS. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .