France/Angers. 60th anniversary of twinning with Osnabrück and Haarlem celebrated in the Netherlands

These three European cities have enjoyed close relations since 1964. Their elected representatives met in Haarlem on Saturday to celebrate 60 years of friendship.

Christine Blin, municipal councillor in charge of libraries, and Gérard Pilet, deputy mayor of Angers responsible for international relations and Europe, made an express trip to the Netherlands on Saturday to celebrate the ^60th anniversary of the twinning between Angers and Haarlem.

This town of 150,000 inhabitants is located some 20 km from Amsterdam and 6 km from the North Sea.

The twinning dates back to 1964. It was formalized in a tripartite agreement, the first of its kind in Europe, also involving the German town of Osnabrück. The deed was signed by Jean Turc, Angers' mayor at the time, and his counterparts on September 3.September 1964, on the first day of the French Week in Osnabrück, in the large Peace Hall where the Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648.

An apple tree was symbolically planted by Haarlem's elected representatives on Saturday, in the street named "Angers", before the traditional exchange of books.

Angers has also been twinned with the towns of Bamako (Mali) since 1974, Pisa (Italy) since 1982, Wigan (England) since 1988, Yantai (China) since 2006, Austin (USA) since 2011 and Toruń (Poland) since 2016.

A special partnership was formed in 2006 with the Swedish town of Södertälje, headquarters of Scania, which has a plant in the Écouflant industrial zone.

Source: www.ouest-france.fr/