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Twinning between cities and towns
in the UK and a number of European countries began shortly after the end of the
second world war and gained momentum during the 1950s.
As personal and municipal contacts became established, mutual interests
developed between workers in the same industries and professions and these
prompted group exchange visits and other events organised on an occupational
basis.
In 1959, PTT twinning began
between France and Germany and accelerated rapidly with the support of both
governments and administrations as part of their policy of reconciliation which
was sealed by the Adenauer-De Gaulle treaty. This initial Franco-German activity
started to extend to other countries through the influence of increased European
co-operation which resulted in links becoming established with Italy and Great
Britain and in the development of the Jumelages Europeans des PTT (JEPTT)
movement.
Since PTT twinning arises through links formed between people in the same area
of activity, the Business as PO Telecoms HQ in 1980 both recognised JEPTT and
recommended some official support by way of hospitality for an appropriate
function and other reasonable facilities in order to supplement the expenses
incurred by the local twinning association when entertaining foreign visitors.
With the growth of the movement in Great Britain and the separation of the
Postal and Telecommunications services, it was decided to form separate national
twinning organisations to co-ordinate local activities within each Business but
to collaborate at national level in liaison with JEPTT. As a result, the BT
European Twinning Federation was created in 1983 and officially recognised later
that year by the BT Board which expressed the continuing view that twinning was
a valuable activity and that the level of official sponsorship should be
maintained in accordance with the 1980 stated recommendations.
The movement continued to develop still further at international level with the
formation of the Union Internationale des Jumelages PTT (UIJPTT) in November
1984. The membership currently includes national federations from France,
Germany, Great Britain (BT and Post Office), Ireland (Eire), Poland, Portugal
and Romania and groups of local associations in Belgium, Denmark, Norway,
Russia, Spain and Switzerland. The organisation of these country
federations is today named Eurojumelage and its website can be found
here.
In view of the Global activities of the Company and the prospect of future
twinning links being formed outside Europe, the Federation in April 1997 changed
its name to BT International Twinning Federation (BTITF).
The latest Eurojumelage Congress took place in Malta during the spring of 2018.