Balkan Cities’ Network is an institution which has established relationships of friendship and cooperation among major cities of the Balkan countries.

It was created in 2000 through an initiative of the Municipality of Thessaloniki.

During our meetings in previous years, we shaped the instruments and structures of the Network, the top one being the Mayors’ Meeting, which takes place annually every December and will take place extraordinarily the day after tomorrow to celebrate the Olympics!

Through this extraordinary Mayors’ Meeting, on the event of the start of the Olympic Games, we are implementing the relevant decision made by our Network’s Executive Committee last December.

Almost all cooperating parties replied, thus giving a new perspective to the Balkan Cities’ Network.

Together, we lend an Inter-Balkan aspect to the repatriation of the Games and send a message of the determination of local authorities of the broader region, especially those of major cities, to the global community: to cooperate and join our forces to address the challenges which local communities - and especially Balkan cities - face as dynamic man-centred complexes.

On Wednesday, August 11, we will welcome the Mayors of the largest Balkan cities at Casa Bianca, a landmark building of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, which hosts cultural events and is dedicated to Inter-Balkan, inter-municipal cooperation in order to host the services of our Network’s Executive Committee whose permanent headquarters are in Thessaloniki.

Thus, we are implementing yet another commitment of the Municipality of Thessaloniki to its cooperating parties and to the younger generations of Balkan citizens.

The flags of the eight countries, to which the largest cities of the Balkan Cities’ Network belong, will be hoisted at Casa Bianca, while our Network’s new website will be presented for the first time, comprising a dynamic means of communication among cities, as well as directly with our citizens.

On the morning of Thursday, August 12, the Extraordinary Celebratory Mayors’ Meeting will take place in order to discuss issues of Network activity and utilization of opportunities of cooperation and development. In the afternoon, we will be present at the renovated Kafantzoglio Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Thessaloniki.

Through its initiatives, the Municipality of Thessaloniki turns the heads of the citizens of the largest Balkan Cities towards Thessaloniki, rendering a globally renowned organization with Greek origins, which will be present in Greece this year, a vehicle of development of common initiatives aiming at peace, stability, the improvement of citizens’ quality of life and the establishment of joint actions and activities aiming at the development of the entire region.