Newcastle Civic Centre is flying the French flag today, to welcome a delegation from our French twin city of Nancy, led by their Mayor, Mathieu Klein.
The delegation also includes Isabelle Lucas (First Deputy Mayor), Charlotte Marrel (Deputy Mayor, Mobility), Antoine Le Solleuz (Deputy Mayor, International Relations), Morand Perrin (Councillor, Cycling lead), Stéphane Harter (Head of Research and Development, Ecology and Nature) and Verena Denry (Head of International Relations).
Newcastle and Nancy have been twin cities since 1954, but ties have been strengthening over the last few years, with increasing co-operation across a number of areas.
Newcastle City Council is hosting the three-day visit, which will focus on discussing challenges, comparing approaches and sharing learning with Nancy around becoming cleaner, greener and more sustainable cities.
In addition, the visit will help strengthen civic, education and business relationships to bring positive outcomes for people and organisations in both our cities. As well as City Council representatives, International Newcastle, the French Honorary Consul for the North of England, North East England Chamber of Commerce and businesses, amongst others, will be involved in exploring opportunities and areas for future collaboration.
International Newcastle has been working with the City Council and local schools in the last year to develop new partnerships with schools in Nancy. Currently, there are 10 new partnerships in development and 4 Newcastle schools were supported in 2021 to get Turing funding to visit their partner schools in Nancy this year. We hope to encourage more schools’ links and activities that are across the curriculum (online and in person), to give children and young people in both cities life changing opportunities and experiences (click here to find out more about support for schools’ partnerships).