ITALIAN TWINNING
Twinned Town - SAN GIULIANO MILANESE
San Giuliano Milanese/Bussy-Saint-Georges
At the heart of Bussy’s first European Twinning: Youth, sports and culture. As Mayor Hugues Rondeau reminded us, this twinning is a partnership that reflects the European and international dimension of Bussy. It shows the town’s desire to open up to others in order to benefit from constructive exchanges. San Giuliano Milanese is located just south of Milan, in the heart of Lombardia, near the Alps and Venetia. Demographically speaking, it’s a relatively young and sports-oriented population, but it’s also a city rich with history. Although this ancient Lombardy city and our brand-new Francilienne town are different in terms of urbanism and population, we’ve got a lot in common - and that’s what brings us together.
Youth, to start with: If Bussy is the youngest town in France, San Giuliano stands out by the exceptional youthfulness of its residents. In a country with sluggish demographics, the population of 35,000 inhabitants is younger on average than the rest of Italy, which means there are many schools and plenty of amenities for small children.
Then, there are sports: San Giuliano is a real sports town, passionate about soccer, or “calcio”, track and field, petanque, martial arts, tennis, swimming…
These decisive factors motivated our choice of San Giuliano as a Trans-Alpine partner. The councilors who participated in preparatory meetings - Dominique Bijard, maire-adjoint in charge of Twinnings, Patrick Terrisse, maire-adjoint of Sports, Stéphane Barnier, Delegate to Associations – imagined athletic events and meets that would be compatible with Bussy’s numerous sports associations. Dominique Bijard rapidly announced idea of a Twinning Cup.
And last, but certainly not least, there’s culture. At the time of the Roman Empire, Bussy was just a modest village with 18 buildings, while San Giuliano was already playing an important role on the old Via Emilia road. But the best-known historical event in San Giuliano was the Battle of Marignan, in 1515. Our Italian friends call it the “Battle of the Giants.”
As the French consulate in Milan who supervised the twinning (along with the President of the Val d’Aoste region, historically linked to France) remarked: “The twinning process has the advantage of not being based on bureaucracy, but rather on affective and voluntary ties.” The twinning of two municipalities is a long-term engagement that lasts many generations, encouraging the “Formation of ties between families, youths, athletes, businessmen, artists… outside of all political constraints.”
On Bussy’s side, ideas abound. Dominique Bijard suggested a tour of Bussy’s Wind’s Band, like the ones in Kyriat Ekron and in our UK twinned towns. The Maire-adjoint Delegate to Twinning suggested linking San Giuliano’s website www.sangiulianonline.it to Bussy’s. Industrial and business relations are a consideration as well, since San Giuliano is already home to businesses like Tech Data (already present in Bussy), the major industrial baker Bindi, a Carrefour “hypermarket”, and multinationals from numerous small and large businesses.
Our Italian partners undoubtedly have plenty of ideas about these exciting initiatives. As our diplomatic representative noted, this experience has been “So rich and varied that both Mayors decided to make it their bet for the future. I know it will be a winning bet!”
All our best wishes for success to the Twinned cities and to Franco-Italian friendship!
Twinning with an Italian town
A newly constructed town, Bussy paradoxically owes its exponential growth to its openness to the world in general, and Europe in particular.
In fact, the new town owes its creation to a national choice to accompany urban development to the east of suburban Paris, and to give true urban character to the area surrounding Euro Disney.
It’s no exaggeration to say that we owe a lot of our existence to the North American firm chosen by the French in the 1980’s to build a new amusement park. It’s also good to know that much of our economic prosperity comes from the international companies who have come to Bussy, like Sony, Fuji, Nortel Telecom, Tech Data… Under these conditions, twinning is a natural extension of our international dimension. It helps us keep economic ties firm (ensuring sources of employment and activity), and it opens us to the outside world, to differences, to “otherness”, which in turn enriches our hearts and minds. We began twinning with Kyriat Ekron, Israel, a town near Tel Aviv. In the UK, our twinning with Radcliffe-on-Trent and Holme-Pierrepont-and-Gamston has been excellent. In 2006, we also twinned with the town of Meiningen, Germany. San Giuliano Milanese welcomes us with open arms. This twinning is our ode to Italy, terre du soleil, gastronomy, art and the epicurean way of life. No, we’re not just giving in to our intense attraction to the land that imposed pizza, fashion and the respect of monuments on the entire world. This twinning is the affirmation of the international dimension of Bussy St.-Georges.
In order to be part of the European Community’s future programs, we have to reach out and be active throughout the continent. In fact, our union with San Giuliano gives us different perspectives for finding support and backing from the EEC. I cannot finish without saying that it was not a simple coincidence that we looked to San Giuliani for this special partnership. We have met many people there, friendly and full of good will, and the town’s dynamic and warm municipal team. Both towns strive for purposeful politics that respect differences and are motivated by the idea of working for the common good – an ideal that instantly brought my colleague, Sindaco Marco Toni, and I, closer together. I sincerely hope that this will be the beginning a long friendship with San Giuliani.
Hugues Rondeau, Maire de Bussy Saint-Georges.
Twinning Charter
We, Marco TONI, Mayor of SAN GIULIANO MILANESE and Hugues RONDEAU, Mayor of BUSSY SAINT-GEORGES, solemnly proclaim the Twinning of our two towns on this day, April 6, 2002,
We declare our intention to use this alliance to develop cultural, touristic, athletic, scholastic, social and economic exchanges for all our citizens.
We express our hope that the foundations for understanding and friendship that we lay down here today will encourage citizens of all ages to speak the language of their friends, learn about their history and open the way to better understanding between our two peoples.
Confidently, we sign this charter today and stamp with our municipal seals on this parchment.
Marco Toni
Hugues Rondeau
- Jumelage San Giuliano Milanese/Bussy-Saint-Georges
- San Giuliano Milanese/Bussy-Saint-Georges
- Charte de jumelage