Debrecen4U September 21, 2026

Mutual Benefits of Debrecen’s Twinning Agreements Range from Cultural Exchange to Youth Welfare

Sumen, Brno, Jyväskylä, Patras, Rishon LeZion, Limerick, Tianjin, Tongliao, Klaipėda, Toluca, Cattolica, Lublin, Setúbal, Oradea, Ningde, Moscow, St Petersburg, Syktyvkar, Taitung, New Brunswick, Paderborn, Kharkiv and Târgu Mureș – one thing all these cities have in common is their connection to Debrecen by relationships of varying strength and history.

The list has been growing for several decades, and we recently reported that the latest proposal submitted by the mayor also puts forward Shymkent in Kazakhstan, while the Debrecen General Assembly will also decide on establishing a twin-city relationship with Târgu Mureș.

Médiacentrum Debrecen asked István Puskás, Debrecen’s Deputy Mayor for Culture, about the mutually beneficial opportunities offered by twin-city relationships, how such an alliance can come about, and what concrete examples demonstrate the value of this cross-border partnership.

Apart from the directional signs installed in front of the Town Hall, many people have no idea how Debrecen’s twin cities are represented here, or how significant this network of relationships is.

The results and values of our twin-city relationships are still largely invisible today. Debrecen has centuries of experience showing that a city and its community are successful when they do not shut themselves away within their own walls, but instead live their lives as part of an international network. Debrecen has been connected to Europe for centuries through ties in the economy, education, science and culture, with twin-city relationships forming a distinctive part of this network. Since 1983, these connections have even extended beyond the continent through Toyama in Japan.

Alongside Debrecen’s regional position, its links with the cities of the surrounding region are also important. A 1955 article in a Debrecen newspaper already reported that the city’s leadership had proposed that Lublin accept Debrecen as its twin city and that an “active and strong cultural relationship” be established between the two cities. The Polish Minority Self-Government of Debrecen recently wrote about this in detail.

In 1956, during the days of the revolution, the Red Cross in Lublin sent a consignment of blood to help treat those wounded in Debrecen. This later provided the basis for the twin-city relationship, which we will also commemorate now as part of our remembrance of the events of 1956.

Lublin was the European Youth Capital in 2023, so young people have a particularly prominent role in the life of the city, and this is something we would also like to learn from. The future of Debrecen is also in the hands of young people, so we believe we need to support them with as many tools and opportunities as possible. For example, at last year’s first Youth Forum, we welcomed an expert from Lublin, who presented the city’s youth policy. We are now preparing an EU application for twin cities together with Lublin and Kharkiv; a German twin city will also be our partner, and young people will again be at the centre of the project.

Alongside study visits, for example, we will also host a band from Lublin at the 2028 Made in Debrecen festival. In 2025, bands came from Brno for the festival, while this year they came from Odorheiu Secuiesc (which is not a twin city, but because of the joint application for the European Youth Capital last year, it is somewhat treated as one). Last week, a delegation of young people and youth workers from Debrecen spent a week there taking part in a workshop as part of a joint EU project.

Beyond the diplomatic standard, what determines how active these relationships are?

At present, our relationships with Oradea and Brno are the most active, virtually on a daily basis. Debrecen is regularly represented at Oradea’s cultural events, and recently the Debrecen–Oradea flower float was also presented at the Flower Carnival. The two cities are connected by many small threads as well, including the DENIM group (Debrecen–Oradea Literary Mentoring Programme – ed.), launched last year, through which cultural events are being organised in cooperation between Debrecen and Oradea, involving young female poets from the two cities.

It is important to highlight the Interreg programme: thanks to an Interreg project during the previous EU budgetary period, the Csokonai Forum was completed in Debrecen, while the Szigligeti Theatre in Oradea was renovated. In the current budgetary period, the Méliusz Library will be the focus.

Mayor László Papp will also be holding talks with Târgu Mureș soon. Last year, Debrecen was the guest of honour at the city’s most prestigious book event, while several members of the Csokonai National Theatre’s company also come from there.

Recently, Imre Enyedi, the new managing director of DEMKI, also spoke about an upcoming visit to Brno in an interview with us. What good practices could we bring back from there?

Brno is twice the size of Debrecen, yet they can learn from us and we can learn from them. We learnt the cultural forum format from them, so every year the city’s cultural stakeholders come together, organised by the local authority, to discuss a particular topic.

The fourth Cultural Forum in Debrecen will take place in the autumn, but we also visit each other’s forums to get a glimpse into the other city’s cultural life. Last year, for example, Brno took home from Debrecen the Hackathon competition organised jointly with the University of Debrecen. The event involves teams of three or four people working intensively on solving a particular problem. The winning team designed an app showcasing Debrecen’s hidden cultural treasures.

Brno is also interested in the youth budget that is already in operation here. We will soon be visiting them to look for good ideas as we reshape the Youth House, creating new and broader opportunities for young people.

What circumstances lead to a town or city becoming a twin city of Debrecen?

As happened through the Lublin Red Cross after 1956, the twin-city relationship with Paderborn also ultimately grew out of charitable activities. In the 1990s, the Maltese Relief Service in Paderborn brought aid consignments to Debrecen and, via Debrecen, to Transylvania.

Along the cultural threads mentioned above, we can also mention Sumen, whose dance group recently performed here at the Flower Carnival. Sumen also holds an annual recitation competition devoted to Hungarian literature, whose winner has been invited to the city for several decades; this year’s winner is currently exploring the streets of Debrecen.

For all our twin cities, it is important that, alongside the larger-scale forms of cooperation, there should also be as many fine, delicate connections as possible, whether in literature, exhibitions or theatre.

Source: dehir.hu | Photo credit: debrecen.hu