Last week (17. - 19. July) the President Benedetto Zacchiroli visited three Belgian cities for a discussion with the three Deputy Mayors responsible for relations with ECCAR and policies against racism and discrimination.

Although in full electoral campaign (Belgium will have local elections on next October) the three politicians have found time to meet the President with their collaborator.
In the city of Liège the President met Mr Hupkens, Deputy Mayor for culture, urbanism and intercultural projects. At the meeting was also present the new representative within ECCAR chosen by the administration who will participate from now on to the meetings of the steering Committee Mr. Joseph Vromans, university professor emeritus. After his studying, he worked at the universities of Nijmegen (NL), Cologne (D), Leiden (NL), Mons (B), Brussels (B) and Liège (B).

In the city of Ghent there was a day of meetings with Vice President of ECCAR Mr. Tapmaz, their collaborators and colleagues talking about perspectives of the ECCAR for next year to be presented at the next SC to be held in GRAZ on October 22nd and 23rd.

The visit to the city of Leuven (whose entry into ECCAR was during the last General Assembly in Liège at the end of April) was an opportunity to meet Ms. Denise Vandevoort (see photo), deputy mayor, who wanted to join ECCAR years ago, and finally succeeded. The city of Leuven has 155 to 160 different nationalities. The Deputy Mayor was accompanied by her collaborator Ms.Hai-Chay Jiang.

The three meetings highlighted the will of the three cities to strengthen the network of Belgian cities against racism in the coming months and together they shared the fact that this is the time, for the European cities to work more and more in synergy against the racism and any kind of discrimination, highlighting that ECCAR is a tool of visibility and effectiveness in the exchange of experiences between the different city administrations.