What are twin city partnerships all about?
Twinning started after the Second World War as a way of encouraging reconciliation between people in Europe. Most twinning links were between French and German towns initially, but the UK quickly got involved too and now there are more than 28000 twinning links between villages, towns and cities throughout wider Europe. At the start, exchanges between towns often focused on school exchanges, sporting and cultural events and these three areas remain an important part of twin city activities. The broad aim of twinning is to use international links to provide a wide range of benefits (educational, social, cultural, sporting, economic, personal development) to people in each city. Relationships between the twin cities have evolved in recent times though and Aberdeen’s twin city activities in recent years have included education, culture and the arts, sport, tourism, commerce, science and technology, health and medical matters, environmental projects, community engagement and language learn
