Strategy on cultural cooperation in region adopted

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Ivan Tasovac is staying in his first official visit to Macedonia, during which he participated in the Annual Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Culture of South East Europe, during which the Regional strategy on cooperation in the culture sector in South-East European countries was adopted on Saturday.

The strategy is the outcome of ten years of efforts invested by regional experts.

Together with ministers of culture from Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tasovac delivered the joint nomination of Stecak medieval tombstones to UNESCO's World Heritage List to the Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova.

Tasovac told Tanjug that the priorities of regional cooperation in the time to come would comprise cultural heritage management, prevention of illegal trade of cultural goods and support to creativity and diversity of cultural expressions.

During his stay in Macedonia, Tasovac conferred with Bokova and Secretary General of the Regional Council for Cooperation Goran Svilanovic and Macedonian Minister of Culture Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska.

We have agreed to sign the new programme of cooperation between Serbia and Macedonia in the culture and arts sector which will focus on improvement of cooperation between institutions of culture, Tasovac said after the meeting with Milevska.

The delivery of the joint nomination of Stecak medieval tombstones is the first international project in the culture sector in the Balkans in the 21st century and it was carried out by the expert teams from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia in the period 2009-2014, under the auspices of the countries' Ministries of Culture.