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HISTORY
The Association of Polish Cities is an organization with rich tradition dating back to the interwar period. Experience exchange Association of Polish Cities organizes congresses, conferences, workshops and seminars for the representatives of the cities. Taking place since 1992, the National Conference of Mayors, and since 1999 also of the Heads of the Counties and the Marshals of the Regions is the largest forum of the representatives of local and regional authorities in Poland. APC is also an organizer of different events with the participation of experts from member cities and cooperating organizations: - Congress of Polish Cities APC also co-finances conferences organized by the professionals on the themes interesting for local governments. Member cities may benefit from expert assistance in solving different problems referring to the functioning of the cities. The Board examines over 1000 cases from the cities yearly. Over 600 cities representatives participate in the works of 15 thematic commissions. The Association promotes best practices in the cities through thematic competitions, exhibitions, building up the database of best practices and own publications. The promotion of interesting and innovative solutions is also included in the numerous projects co-financed by the external institutions - the World Bank, the European Union, the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (Management Leader in the Local Government, Poland in the EU - better quality of life in the cities, Structural Funds in the cities - best practices, Institutional Capacity Building of Polish Local Government Units for better delivery of Public Services to their Citizens, NGOs and Businesses through Benchmarking, dissemination of Good Practices and training of public administration staff - 2006-2011). Expert support The Association of Polish Cities conducts surveys on such themes as: school subsidies, housing allowances, property taxes, barriers to investment. Their results are used in the legislative and expert works and available for the cities. The gathered data allow to evaluate the situation in different aspects of local government and create the basis for negotiations with central government. Presently, the largest research project carried out by the Association is the Self-government Analysis System (SAS), which since 1999 monitors the most important fields of public life in member cities: social support, education, culture and transport. Member cities participate in the project free of charge. Monitoring and comparing of the costs, amounts and effectiveness of the delivered public services is the supports for the cities in everyday management. The conclusions from the research are available on the Association's website. The Electronic Analysis Packet processes the gathered data and presents the complete set of indicators. So far (till 2006) 158 cities have taken part in this project. The Association finances and presents to the cities the legislative expertise, which are ordered and prepared on the basis of requests from the cities. Foreign Cooperation The Association is the member of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), which represents national Associations of local and regional authorities from more than 35 countries in Europe. The APC is also represented in: - The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE), which is a consultative institution of the Council of Europe, In the first years of its operation the Association established cooperation links with the National League of Cities (USA). The experience of this organization turned out to be helpful for the APC during its organizational stage. On the international arena the Association strengthens cooperation between twin cities (almost 30% of all Polish twinning contacts have been established with the assistance of the APC). The Association also helps to find the financial sources to realize the joint projects - mainly through "Europe for citizens 2007-2013" Program of the European Commission (thanks to the APC engagement Poland is now one of the leading countries having the most of the projects accepted by the European Commission). Support to the foreign cooperation is also given by numerous international conferences, including bilateral meetings or thematic seminars. The Association of Polish Cities cooperates with a number of CEMR member associations. This cooperation is focused mainly on town twinning partner search, bilateral conferences and joint projects. Promotion and information Domestic and foreign trade fairs The INVESTCITY Polish Cities Investment Fair, organized by the APC in Poznań since 1992, have evolved in 2003 into the SALONY INVESTCITY, which take place during different specialist fair events on real estate, building industry, environment protection or economy and focuses on the municipal investment offers in different fields of local economy. SALONY INVESTCITY are organized in Poland as well as abroad, in the form of joint exhibition space. This form enables member cities to share the costs of taking part in such prestigious events like Barcelona Meeting Point, MIPIM in Cannes, CEPIF and EXPO REAL in Munich. The Association publishes "The investment projects of Polish cities" updated every 2 years, with investment offers of local governments - this publication is promoted in Poland and abroad. Information and publishing activity - the "Samorząd Miejski" monthly ("Municipal Self-government") - an official publication, which is an insert in the "Gazeta Samorządu i Administracji" last update: January 2008 |