Belgrade, 24/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - During the celebration in Belgrade of the European Heritage Days (EHD), the Council of Europe and the European Commission honoured Serbia with a plaque. This was in honour of the former industrial zone of Pancevo, the “Energy and Light” electricity plant, the Smederevo fortress and Viminacium. This award illustrated the rehabilitation efforts made by the national authorities. The plaque award ceremonies is part of the “plan for implementing integrated/evaluation projects for rehabilitating architectural and archaeological heritage”, one of the chapters in the regional programme for culture and cultural heritage of south east Europe (see other article). Terry Davies, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, said during an EHD opening ceremony that their Serbian hosts have made European Heritage Days for 2007 a strong aspect of their presidency, which has been dynamic and productive (Ed: Serbia is currently acting presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe). Mr Josep M Lloveras, head of the European Commission delegation to the Serbian Republic, said that Serbia is not on Europe's threshold, it was already part of Europe. He promised that the EU would continue to help Serbia fully succeed with its integration project and underlined that the exchange of common European values was transmitted via heritage, “which is the embodiment of all these values”.
The European commissioner for education, training, culture and youth, Jan Figel was also keen to be involved in this event and participated in the festivities organised on Friday evening at the Terazije theatre in Belgrade. Praising Serbia's rich cultural past, one of the facettes of European heritage, the commissioner underlined during an important press conference that they should “embrace the cultural heritage as our common European identity”. At his side, the director of culture and cultural heritage and nature at the Council of Europe, Robert Palmer, pointed out that Europe was “not simply geographical boundaries but also boundaries of the mind” where each community had its own cultural specificities. Palmer also welcomed the fact that the round table organised by the Serb authorities allowed all the actors of the south east region of Europe to express their point of view and have a fruitful dialogue. (il)