"Let's talk about our differences and conflicts"

Participation in the 2nd Dialogue Forum of the Twin Cities on 28/29 May possible

The 2nd Twin Cities Dialogue Forum marks the start of the next project phase. The experiences of the first forum in June 2025 will be used to gain further insights into how citizens from twin cities deal with the increasing hardening of national borders and different world views in society. Specifically, this means:

• to learn more from the participants of the first forum about developments in their cities since the last meeting and to bring the participants of both events together and
• to create an environment, to have open conversations about issues and interests that are conflictual and have the potential to divide society within and between the Twin Cities.

The aim of the forum is to gain insights for other twin cities as well as for Europe as a whole.

The dialog forums are part of the Interreg Central Europe project "BorderLabs CE", co-funded by the European Union.

Participants wanted

The forum is looking for 20 participants from Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice, representing different sectors of society. The aim is to have a ratio of ¾ new participants and ¼ participants who were already present at the first forum.

It is important to invite participants from a broad spectrum of perspectives and life experiences within society and possibly different political world views. Therefore, interested parties are asked to answer some questions confidentially in advance:

• Why would you like to participate in the forum?
• How do you see the increasing compartmentalization of national borders in your twin city?
• What issues do you see as (potential) conflict factors within and between the twin cities?
• Which positions in society and politics do you find particularly worrying?
• Please name a controversial issue on which you have a clear opinion and on which you personally find it difficult to compromise (immigration, freedom of speech, etc.). Could you tell us your main thoughts or beliefs on this topic?

The common language is English. The dialog forum will be professionally moderated.

If you are interested in participating in the two-day event, please contact the Frankfurt-Słubice Cooperation Center by Friday, March 20, providing your age and answering the above questions. Contact: Sören Bollmann, City of Frankfurt (Oder), e-mail: soeren.bollmann@frankfurt-oder.de

All information will be treated confidentially. If the number of registrations is higher than the number of free places, a selection will be made with regard to the widest possible diversity (age, experience) or decided by lottery.