From Sponsorship to Partnership – Developments and Current Status of Romanian-French Town Twinning

In the late 1980s, numerous Western European communes "adopted" Romanian villages to protect them from Ceauşescu's village systematization program. Around 2,000 French villages took part in this project initiated by the organization Opération Villages Roumains. Some of these sponsorships subsequently developed into town twinnings. Today, Romania and France are linked by around 200 local partnerships. This article first looks at the history of its origins and its importance for the local political and civil integration of Romania into the EU. Then, the Romanian-French town twinning is compared with the Romanian-German town twinning. The second part of this article examines the current situation of the partnerships. Representatives of 59 town twinnings from Romania and France took part in a survey which is explored in greater detail.