Meeting on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 November in Copenhagen (Denmark), the European Ministers for Culture and the Media opened their informal meeting on Monday with a day devoted to the preservation of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, which has been damaged by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine launched in 2022.
The Danish Minister for Culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, who chaired the meeting, announced the creation of a Fund for Ukrainian Cultural Heritage, with an initial contribution of €1.3 million from Denmark. The aim of this initiative is to mobilise other Member States to take similar steps.
At the press conference, the Minister said: “I’m very happy that, together with the Netherlands, Denmark is taking the first step, pledging financial support to the cultural recovery of Ukraine. Today we are sending a very clear message to Mr. (Vladimir) Putin (President of the Russian Federation – Editor’s note): ‘Stop bombing culture. If he continues, we will rebuild’”.
The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Tetyana Berezhna, thanked Denmark for its support and said that 1,612 immovable cultural heritage sites had been damaged, including 27 that had been completely destroyed.
She said that “the Russian Federation is deliberately targeting and destroying Ukrainian culture and its symbols”, adding that the new fund “unites the resources of governments, international organisations, experts, and partners with the aim not only of preserving our cultural heritage, but also of ensuring the sustainable development of culture as a cornerstone of Ukraine’s identity and resilience”.
The European Commissioner for Culture, Glenn Micallef, reaffirmed the European Union’s commitment. “We will stand by Ukraine, we will continue to support Ukraine, and we will continue to support you for as long as it takes, and we will do whatever it takes”, he declared, expressing a “firm commitment” “to protect and promote peace”, but also “to defend democracy”.
The second day of the informal meeting, Tuesday 4 November, will be devoted to the media, the reliability of information and the promotion of European content, with a view to adopting a joint declaration on the role of the media and culture as instruments of democratic defence and social cohesion. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)