Mellieha's twin town Adenau awarded flag of honour from Council of Europe

The Council of Europe's award to the German town of Adenau, in recognition of its openness and friendship in reaching twinning agreements with three local councils in Europe, was held recently.

The first of these agreements was with Sillery in the Champagne district of France in 1986, followed by Mellieha in 1996, which was the first local authority in Malta to sign a friendship agreement with another European local council, and finally with Castione della Presolana in Italy in 2003.

For this event the town council of Adenau invited representatives of all three sister towns for the presentation of the flag of honour, presided over by Bernard Eicher of Belgium on behalf of the Council of Europe.

The mayor of Sillery, Jacques Douadi, and vice-mayor Sergio Rossi, of Castione della Presolana, addressed the audience in German, with a message from Mayor John Buttigieg of Mellieha being read by Joseph De Bono.

The message explained the willingness of support of friendship from every organisation in the community of Mellieha and how over the past eight years various cultural and social activities were held in both localities.

The audience were also addressed by Hermann-Josef Romes, mayor of Greater Adenau, and finally by Bernd Schiffarth, mayor of Adenau and president of the German-Maltese Association.

The Adenau Town Band, followed by the Adenau fanfare corps, entertained the packed hall, made up of local politicians, councillors and representatives of the local community.

The Simar folk group of Mellieha, who have had the opportunity to visit Adenau on numerous occasions, closed the activity in true Maltese style with songs in Maltese, English and Italian, which kept the atmosphere happy and friendly to very late in the evening.