Partner committee Borne and the board of the town twinning association Rheine met to plan the future
GLANERBRUG/Rheine. How should the town twinning between Borne and Rheine be organized in the future under changed conditions in Europe? In order to determine this course, the partner committee Borne and the board of the town twinning association Rheine took a day last weekend to question traditional processes and redefine goals. The venue was highly symbolic: 16 active members from Borne and Rheine went into retreat at the Euregio conference center “Terhaar-sive-Droste” in Glanerbrug, virtually right on the border between the two countries. The working groups were expertly moderated by Rheines former mayor Dr. Angelika Kordfelder and Rob Welten – former mayor of Borne and Haaksbergen – who has also been active in the Euregio for decades.
Reiner Wellmann, Chairman of the town twinning association Rheine, and Nico Gosselt, currently Head of the Comite Borne, recalled the origins of this partnership, which has now existed for more than 42 years, at the beginning of the meeting, looking at the twinning document: the aim is to “initiate, promote and organize meetings between people from both towns”. This is just as important today as it was over 40 years ago.
Afterwards, the participants retired to group work. The Bornenser and Rheinenser worked together in a mixed composition on the question of how the role of the partner committee and the town twinning association should be viewed in view of the polarization in the world and the dwindling trust in European institutions. Other questions included how meetings between the citizens of the two cities could be intensified, how the exchange of schoolchildren could be strengthened again and, above all, what the citizens of the two cities could learn from each other.
The connection to the council and administration in both municipalities also plays an important role. After all, both the partner committee Borne and the town twinning association Rheine work on a voluntary basis on behalf of the councils to organize and maintain links between the two municipalities. In this context, it was also agreed that after the municipal elections in the Netherlands next March, a meeting of the councils of both cities should take place in the fall of 2026 at the latest.
The results were presented and discussed in a large plenary session in the afternoon. The participants will now take the results home to their committees. The coming months will certainly show what new impetus there will be in the town twinning Borne-Rheine. A look at the joint events in the coming twelve months makes it clear that the connection between the two municipalities is one of the most active in the entire Euregio region: 13 events alone are on the calendar. For example, an e-soccer tournament between young people from Borne and Rheine at the clubhouse of Borner Sportclub NEO for the first time in mid-January 2026. www.friendsineuropa.com