The opening conference on European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012 in the Czech Republic has taken place in Prague, in the building of Černínský Palace on March 1, 2012. The event has been organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs with a support from the part of European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic. The event has been opened by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Jaromír Drábek, followed by a number of interesting guests and organisations. Practical examples from the practice of municipalities and regions have been also presented by the representatives of the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic, who also mentioned the international programme of "Age-friendly Cities" which is open to all municipalities and which is covered by this association in the CZ with Governmental support.

The conference introduced individual topics such as employment of elderly citizens, lifelong learning, intergeneration dialogue, volunteering, healthy ageing and many others. It also introduced the organisations that decided to contribute voluntarily to the fulfilment of this topic's objectives. The conference provided space for mutual exchange of opinions and experience. A Memorandum to the European Year 2012 that serves as the underlying foundation and inspiration for further steps of the CZ government, municipalities and regions in the process of improving the position of elderly citizens in the Czech society has been signed ceremoniously at the end of event.

Meeting of representatives of Healthy Regions that form a part of the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic took place on February 14 in Prague's Kaiserštejnský Palace at Malá Strana. The representatives of the following Healthy Regions presented their approved procedures and successful activities - Vysočina Region, South-Moravian Region, Plzeň Region and Liberec Region - and also representatives of Moravian-Silesian Region. The aim of the event was to share experience and inspiration from various areas of development among individual regions.

On March 8, 2012, the city district of Prague 21 - Újezd nad Lesy together with Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic organised a "Meeting of city districts to Local Agenda 21", attended by 43 representatives from 19 Prague city districts. The aim of the event was to share practice in the field of engagement of the public, non-profit and private sector in improvement of the quality of life in Prague's city districts. The event for instance introduced the activities of Pupils' Council of the city district Újezd nad Lesy and selected projects dedicated to environmental protection in this city district with public participation.

The international ICLEI organisation, whose main objective lies in the support of collaboration of cities in activities related with sustainable development, within the project "Informed Cities" organises regular "Round Tables" that should help to connect the results of newest researches and common practice in municipalities. The Round Table that took place on February 16th and 17th in London followed the autumn meeting in Naples, Italy, whose participants discussed the measurement of sustainability of cities in collaboration with research organisations. The Round Table in London, from the CZ attended by representatives of the Ministry of the Environment and Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic, primarily dealt with the prepared UN World Summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro - a conference on sustainable development that follows the Earth Summit of 1992 and is referred to as "Rio+20". The conference participants were for instance familiarised with French initiative Paris+20, whose objective is to organise a simulated parallel conference for students. Twenty-three representatives of European cities attended ICLEI Round Table.

Find more information on "Informed Cities" project here.