Albania strengthens cultural cooperation with SEE countries

TIRANA, April 24 – South-East European (SEE) ministers of culture have signed a joint declaration committing to implement regional cultural heritage projects under UNESCO assistance. The declaration was signed in Montenegro during the sixth ministerial conference on cultural heritage in South-East Europe.
Minister Ferdinad Xhaferraj, who represented Albania in the meeting, said that as the region progresses in its road to European integration, cultural policies should be developed beyond geographical borders promoting diversity and values of cultural heritage.
The SEE culture ministers also signed a declaration to establish the NETA network of theatres which will be composed of the region’s best theatres and festivals, said the Albanian Ministry of Culture.
Three Albanian artists participated in an exhibition called “moving forward, contemporary art in SEE.”
The Ministry of Culture said it presented two major projects in the conference, the European Festival of Choirs which will be held from April 16 to 18 to commemorate Mother Teresa’s 100th birthday and a project to establish a Balkan philarmonic composed of young artists and instrumentalists from the region.
The meeting held in Montenegro’s Cetinje brought together ministers of culture of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia
The event, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media of Montenegro with the support of the UNESCO Office in Venice, was the continuation of the regional cooperation initiative “Cultural Heritage – a Bridge Towards a Shared Future”, launched during the First Ministerial Conference held in Mostar on 2004 and followed by the Conferences in Venice (2005), Ohrid (2006), Zadar (2007), and Bucharest (2008).
South-Eastern Europe (SEE) has been called a crossroads of cultures and civilizations, where i.a. Illyrians, ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Venice, the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empires have marked their influence by tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and where Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, and Orthodoxy have co-existed over centuries.