Malaga was already buzzing last week. Hundreds of JCI members from across the continent had gathered for the European Conference 2026, and by Friday afternoon, JCI Bruges and JCI Bruxelles had made it official: a multi twinning agreement, signed in person with six other chapters from five different countries.
It had been in the works for a while. But seeing it signed in Spain, with representatives from Turkey, Switzerland, Poland and the UK in the room made it real in a way that months of planning emails never quite do.
Eight chapters. One agreement. A lot of potential.
If you’re newer to JCI, you might not have come across the term yet. A twinning is a formal partnership between chapters — a way of building lasting ties with a JCI community in another country. A multi twinning takes that further by bringing several chapters together under one shared framework, rather than a series of one-to-one relationships.
In practice: recurring international online sessions, joint projects, cultural and professional exchange visits, and once a year, a rotating mini-summit hosted by one of the member chapters and built around a theme that actually matters. There’s always a gala evening too, which, let’s be honest, is never a bad thing. What sets this multi twinning apart from a one-time event is continuity. The collaboration is meant to run for years, to keep growing, and to become part of how a chapter operates internationally — not just a highlight on the annual calendar.
Internationalism is one of JCI’s four pillars. That said, it can quietly become one of the harder ones to make tangible at chapter level. Not every member makes it to a World Congress or an Area Conference. Some are newer, some are busier, some just haven’t found the right entry point yet.
This kind of structured partnership lowers that threshold considerably.
“This gives our members a real, ongoing connection to peers across Europe,” said Erwan Marion, who signed on behalf of JCI Bruxelles. “It’s not a one-off — it’s a framework that keeps delivering.”
Guilio Simoens, representing JCI Bruges at the Malaga signing, was equally direct: “We want every member to feel that internationalism is within reach. Not just the ones who travel to international events. This is exactly what this initiative enables.”
Both chapters have been building toward this kind of international engagement for some time. The European Conference 2026 was the right moment to make it happen.
One of the first European multi twinnings was launched in May 1979, when nine chapters met in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands to introduce what was then a fairly novel idea. The timing wasn’t accidental: that same year saw the first direct elections to the European Parliament, and the spirit of building something meaningful across borders was very much in the air.
Those nine founding chapters — Alphen aan den Rijn, Düsseldorf, Hasselt, High Wycombe, Kolding, Luxembourg, Malahide (now Fingal), Paisley and Villefranche-en-Beaujolais — couldn’t have known the format would still be going strong nearly five decades later. And yet here we are, with the multi twinning signed at the European Conference 2026 in Malaga adding two more Belgian chapters to that story.
The practical work starts now. The eight chapters in the multi twinning will begin aligning their calendars, setting up their first online sessions and figuring out who hosts the inaugural mini-summit. More details will follow through your local chapter and here on jci.be as plans take shape.
If international JCI has always felt like something that happens to other members, in other cities — now is a good moment to reconsider that.
Gesuggereerde meta description (max. 160 tekens): JCI Bruges and JCI Bruxelles signed a multi twinning agreement with six European chapters at the 2026 European Conference in Malaga. Here’s what it means.
