Between 16-18 June in the course of the 4th town days of Székelyhíd , in the organization of Ér Hangja Association was held the friendly gathering of twin towns across the borders, which closened Székelyhíd to its twin towns from Romania, Hungary, Belgium, Croatia and Felvidék (Slovakia). The goal of the gathering was community building via exchange of experiences and building a common future in Europe. The program was fund by the European Union for citizens program and sponsored by the local city hall.
The Let’s gather for our common future! event was opened by Aszalós Tímea, the chief leader of Ér Hangja Associaton and Béres Csaba, the mayor of Székelyhíd. The guest delegations gathered together on Friday morning in the building of the local museum and came to know better each other via the short presetation of each town. Dr. Kres Tímea, the project mannager of Door to Europe Association from, from Sepse town, Croatia held a short presentation about the brief history of EU and presented the problems which generate big political incertitude in the region of Drávaszög too (a region near Drava river). Tóth Ágnes, the cultural desk officer of Gyermely village’s city hall (Gyermely is a village in East Hungary) resumed in three points the advantages of EU membership: the open borderlines, the subventions for development and the possibility of gaining the resources for it. Sztancs Tibor, the vice mayor of Nyíradony, Hajdú-Bihar county presented the projects which support the sport activities in his town. Banai Tóth Pál the mayor of Dunamócs, Felvidék (Slovakia) presented his city, which has gastronomical and cycling turistic attractions for those who are interested. Hans Springer the mayor of Kirchdorf am Inn, Germany in the interpretation of Kovács János romano-catholic clerk presented his future plans. In his wiew the young generations and the learning of foreign languauges can issue in a closer relationship among his town and Székelyhíd.
Our city was represented by the city mayor Béres Csaba, who spoke about the important developmental projects. He told that a part of them come to be tangible and the other part of them are on a good way to come to fruition: the projects about the thermal baths, castles and mansions of the countryside. The mayor spoke about the problems of integration of Roma population, 20% of Székelyhíd’s population, and the invitee shared their similar experiences. In the afternoon the delegations layed wreaths at the millenar monument, took part at the artistic expositions, watched the short-play of the amateur acting company,NagySzakSzínTár about the challanges of EU and in the evening took part on a tradititional dinner with local wine and folk dance.
The programmes continued on Saturday morning in the assembly hall of the local council. Szabó Ödön, parliamentary deputy of Democratic Party of Hungarians from Romania held a speech about Eurocriticism to Europhobia, the future of EU. He explained that the decision-making of EU is full of ideological contradictions. He brought in relief the fact that the coalitions of compulsion, interest and value will slowly turn into political coalitions. In his wiew the inner problems can be solved by open discussion not by exit, so the union of the countries is essential. Winkler Gyula EU parliamentary deputy held a speech about EU after Brexit. He spoke about the exit of the United Kingdom and its consequences. In the end the delegations of the participant twin towns held a contest program about the coopperative opportunities: future plans, visions.
The last one and half day was for entertainment. The guest delegations took part on cultural, sport and free time activities, on the city days programmes. During the time of the meeting of towns the organisers made different programmes for children and youngsters to know better the EU (games, quizzes, short films, drawing contest with the title :What EU means to you?)