Cornwall Council recently played host to a delegation from the General Council of Finistere in Breizh/Brittany to further develop a 'Protocol of Cooperation' that was signed between the two councils in August 2009.

The protocol was set up so that Cornwall and Finistere can work together on areas of common interest and follows the signing of a letter of intent for cooperation between the two councils in May 2008. However, It wasn't until August of this year that the protocol was formally agreed to. Councillor Carolyn Rule, Cornwall Council cabinet member for the Economy and Regeneration, said:

"We have a lot in common with the General Council of Finistere in terms of the challenges we face and it was great to meet up with our opposite numbers.

"We looked at a whole range of issues and learned from each other about enhancing the quality of life of residents and achieving the highest quality of local government."

The Breton delegation that visited Cornwall this month took part in a series of meetings with their opposite number in Cornwall Council and were also given a presentation on Cornwall¡¯s current bid to be the European Region of Culture in 2014. This month a Cornwall ¨C Finistere Co-operation Officer, Aline Chever, will begin work to develop the main goals of the protocol for the next two years.

The main goals of the protocol are:

to develop common actions and possibly apply for joint application to European funding to identify common interests to exchange knowledge and experiences to share networks and to enable stakeholders to develop actions in common areas of interests.

Some of the action points that were identified as areas of common interest between the two councils included maintaining identity, sustaining economic development and education. It was agreed that the frame of the protocol should be flexible in order to adapt to emerging issues and activities.

At the Celtic League's annual general meeting 2009 - held in Cornwall - different possibilities of furthering cooperation between the Celtic countries was extensively discussed, including the possibility of encouraging more councils within the various nations of working together more closely on particular issues. (Note; this resolution complimented an earlier resolution on this subject agreed some years ago at an AGM in Alba)

Even though the League is encouraged to see that some cooperation is taking place on an inter Celtic level between Cornwall and Finistere, joint cooperation on a Cornwall and Brittany wide level would be better desired.

This month the League will decide what sort of model of Celtic cooperation would be best for the organisation to promote.

(Article compiled for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

18/10/09

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