Ring partnership
A ring partnership is a form of town twinning in which all towns involved have signed a partnership agreement with one another. A ring partnership therefore always consists of at least three partners who consequently maintain at least three relationships with one another.
Ring partnerships can come about through a formal resolution of several partners or form over time when the contact between their representatives becomes more intensive over the years. It is also possible for new partners to join an existing ring partnership. Outside of these, the cities involved often maintain additional, individual city partnerships. Although there is no fixed upper limit for the number of partners, the number of relationships that arise is growing disproportionately. So far there is no ring partnership with more than seven participants.
The first ring partnership was concluded in 1958 between the cities of Cologne , Lille (France), Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg), Liège (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Turin (Italy), reaffirmed in 1983 and is still valid today. It took place immediately after the founding of the EEC and was brought into being in the spirit of European unification: the participating cities embody the six founding members - a constellation that is still unique today. The second ring partnership followed in 1959, when Groß-Gerau , Brignoles (France), Tielt (Belgium) and Bruneck (Italy) joined. In 2000, Szamotuły (Poland) became a fifth member.
The ring partnership between Bad Soden am Taunus , Rueil-Malmaison (France) and Kitzbühel (Austria) took place without a founding act, but only came about when Rueil-Malmaison and Kitzbühel also entered into a town partnership.
All in all, ring partnerships are quite a rare occurrence, as a high degree of cooperation, commitment and mutual affinity must be present for them to come about. The choice of partners is also small, as many cities have long-term partnerships and are seldom willing to choose more than one twin city per country. Liège, for example, has had two relationships with Dutch cities since 1958, as a partnership with Maastricht had already been concluded in 1955. The following constellations have currently come about in Germany:
- Cologne - Lille - Esch-sur-Alzette - Liège - Turin - Rotterdam
- Groß-Gerau - Brignoles - Tielt - Bruneck - Szamotuły
- Bad Soden - Rueil-Malmaison - Kitzbühel
- Velbert - Châtellerault - Corby
- Wertheim - Huntingdon (United Kingdom) - Szentendre (Hungary). This ring partnership could develop into a special case, since the French twin town of Wertheim, Salon-de-Provence , already maintains intensive contacts with Hungary. Should this result in a town twinning without Salon-de-Provence and Huntingdon also being related, an "incomplete" ring partnership would exist for the first time.
- Grebenstein - Lezoux (France) - Sarsina (Italy) - Lopik (Netherlands)
- Amöneburg - Château-Garnier (France) - Tuoro sul Trasimeno (Italy) - Tragwein (Austria) (1996 1st European ring partnership among four municipalities)
- Hemmoor - Couhé (France) - Swaffham (United Kingdom)
- Hürth - Spijkenisse (Netherlands) - Thetford (United Kingdom)
- Esslingen am Neckar - Vienne (France) - Udine (Italy) - Velenje (Slovenia) - Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland). The great commitment on the part of the city of Esslingen was one of the decisive factors in its being awarded the European badge by the Council of Europe .
- Bergisch Gladbach - Bourgoin - Jallieu (France) - Luton (Great Britain) - Velsen (Netherlands). The ring partnership was established in 1956 on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the city charter.