News

Delegation from Ukmergė visits Partner City in Hungary

On 31 August - 3 September, a delegation led by the member of the Council of the Ukmergė District Municipality (hereinafter referred to as "Municipality") Irma Vaitaitienė attended the traditional annual festival of the Municipality's partner city Kiskunmajsa in Hungary.

I.Vaitaitienė was accompanied by the Council Member Valdas Kersnauskas, Daiva Zimblienė, Deputy Head of the Information Technology and Public Relations Division, and Kristina Ridzevičienė, Chief Specialist of the Civil Registry and Document Management Division, Council Services Section, on an official visit to the partner city of Kiskunmajsa. The delegation travelled to Hungary in a Mercedes-Benz Vito Tourer belonging to the Municipality Administration, driven by Julius Eimontas, the driver of the Asset and Corporate Management Division, Economic Services Unit.

Patkós Zsolt, Mayor of Kiskunmajsa Municipality, Ravai Monika and Serban Gyorgy, Deputy Mayors, warmly welcomed the delegation from Ukmergė in Hungary.

The 30th celebration of Kiskunmajsa, known as "Majsaer", was full of spectacular events, with locals celebrating both the 280th birthday of Kiskunmajsa and the 60th anniversary of the local House of Culture.

Alongside the delegation from Ukmergė District Municipality, representatives from other partner cities of Kiskunmajsa Municipality were also present: from Bad Schonborn (Germany), Lomach (Germany), Giergioszentmikla - Siebenbürgen (Romania), Topolia - Vojvodina (Serbia) and Lubliniec (Poland). Hungary has had the longest cooperation with the latter city for 25 years.

The delegation from Ukmergė, together with other foreign delegations, attended many events of the Kiskunmajsa town festival: marches, the opening ceremony, an exhibition of artworks created by local artists, a fair, concerts, etc., and discussed further cooperation and introduced themselves to each other by showing short video clips about their towns and people. The representatives of the partner cities also visited Kigyos, the first settlement in Kiskunmajsa, where the history of the town was told by visiting a small church and museum exhibits, a local beekeeping family and their apitherapy (bee therapy) house, as well as tasting different flavours of honey and the most popular local cuisines: cabbage roulettes reminiscent of Lithuanian balandeliai, potato "pogačiai" (similar to Lithuanian Samogitian pancakes, but without the filling), beef goulash soup, etc. Delegations also visited thermal water pools, etc. All the guests were driven around Kiskunmajsa and its surroundings in an unusual means of transport - the so-called Dotto train.

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The municipalities of Ukmergė and Kiskunmajsa signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in 2015. The two municipalities established their cooperation relations in 2008, thanks to the Ukmergė folk artist Rimantas Zinkevičius. He is, by the way, an Honorary Citizen of Kiskunmajsa.

Cooperation between the two municipalities is developed through exchange programmes for culture, business partners, youth and public organisations. The municipalities exchange best practices. International projects in the field of renewable energy and tourism development are being implemented. An International project on renewable energy has been completed.

Kiskunmajsa is located between two rivers, the Danube and the Tisza, and is 124 kilometres from the capital Budapest. The current population is around 11 500 inhabitants, of which 80% are Catholics and the rest are Reformed. The town produces pasta, tractor cabs, etc.

Daiva Zimblienė
Deputy Head of IT and public relations department