"For 40 years, the CDJA (the Twinning Committee of Angoulême and Foreign Countries) is daily developing intercultural exchanges and defending the values of solidarity and civic engagement with its 9 twinning cities:- Bury (England - 1959)- Chaves (Portugal - 2015)- Hildesheim (Germany - 1965)- Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain - 1967)- Saguenay (Canada - 1969)- Guelendjik (Russia - 1977)- Segou (Mali - 1984)- Turda (Romania - 1994)- Hoffman Estates (USA - 1996)In 2017, year of the 40th birthday of the association, the CDJA has highlighted the importance of European mobility projects (and more broadly international) by organizing a youth exchange on the theme of sport as a pedagogical support and an ""integrative social activity"".All the partners involved in the project shared the following objectives:- To transmit the humanists, citizens and civic values linked with “twinning” and “sport” to the young people through the ERASMUS program +- To encourage a greater youth involvement in the network of twinning cities at European and international scales.This project involved 13 young people between 14 and 18 years old and 2 leaders per city invited, each one applying the principles of parity and involvement of young people with fewer opportunities.The French young people in civic service (who composed, in minority, the French group) had ensured the qualitative coordination of the project, supervised by the volunteers of the local structures involved and the coordinator of the exchange.All the planned activities have respected the common objectives of the project but also to specific objectives, using non-formal education and intercultural tools:- To foster group cohesion- To share the values linked with “twinning”, “sport” and sports practices in other countries: universal behavioural values such as respect (of the rule, of the opponent, of the referee, of yourself), fair play, tolerance and openness towards others. Three half days of exchanges with local sports clubs are materialized in the program, so young people could experiment, exchange and compare...- To ensure active participation of young people- To enable young people to understand the skills they will develop during the exchangeIn order to facilitate the visibility and create interaction with the local citizens, all the group has been welcomed by the Mayor of Angoulême, Mr. Bonnefont, in the official room of the City Hall, and has realized a public flashmob ""Happy twinanniversary to youth"" during tjhe French national Day festivities (July 14, 2017).The impact on young people, through this exchange, was the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, the sharing of know-how and good practices on the theme of sport (respect ofr the rules and the adversary, punctuality, commitment, solidarity ...), and especially the desire to renew this experience in their future projects.It was also an opportunity to valorize the European mobility projects to the youth and sport actors of our region in the context of non-formal education (strengthening local partnerships).The Twinning Committee of Angoulême and Foreign Countries and its European partners are clearly identified as structures offering opportunities for ERASMUS + mobility and exchange.This exchange obtained the following financial support: Erasmus +, County Council of Charente, Grand Angoulême (via its STGA transport service), Mairie d'Angoulême and MAIF."

The recently concluded H2020 project CURE prepared the ground for exploitation of Copernicus Core Services in urban planning. Achieving climate neutrality requires a city that has joint the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (the Cities Mission), to reduce the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions from all sectors within the citys boundary to net zero by 2030, including emissions within the city boundary, from: combustion of fossil fuels in buildings and facilities; combustion of fossil fuels for all vehicles and transport; and changes in land use (agriculture, forestry and other land uses). All the above are considered as Scope 1 GHG emissions (direct emissions) and the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), based on the CURE method for CO2 emissions monitoring, holds promise in aiding cities to achieve the ambitious goals of the Mission, by assisting in monitoring the efficiency of efforts to trace the advancement towards climate neutrality. The proposed project CLMS-Cities (Copernicus responding to EU Cities Mission) aims to improve CLMS with new elements and products, capable of being integrated into land planning decisions with regard to climate change mitigation at local scale. CLMS-Cities will contribute to CLMS evolution, as it is expected to lead to more evidence-based urban planning activities related to climate change mitigation, resulting in improved GHG emissions inventory methods and outputs to support cities to meet the Missions ambitious objectives. It will focus on the ten cities of the Mission that were recently (2023) labelled, providing the Missions community with spatially disaggregated environmental intelligence at a local scale and a proof-of-concept that urban planning and management strategies enhancing the GHG inventories can be supported by CLMS. CLMS-Cities method will be modular and scalable, delivering consistent products across the cities of the Mission and developing synergies between CLMS and third-party data sources.