Statement by the President at the Regional Summit Forum of the Heads of State of South-East Europe

Cetinje, 4.6.2009  |  speech

Statement by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Danilo Türk at the Regional Summit Forum of the Heads of State of South-East Europe
Cetinje, 4 June 2009


Mr President Vujanović,

I would like to express my delegation's gratitude to you and to your country, Montenegro, for having invited us and for your great effort in the preparation of this conference. We are grateful for the elegant environment in which we are working and for the text of the Cetinje declaration, which will be an important document and will provide guidance for the future.

I would also like to pay tribute to Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO who started the process of strengthening of cultural heritage and also for his guidance he shared with us at the beginning of this conference. I'd like to express my gratitude to Secretary General of the Council of Europe Mr Terry Davis for his inspiring words and his very wise suggestions regarding the current and future work in the management of cultural diversity and in the strengthening our cultural heritage.

Mr President,

Culture is a concept, which invites definitions. There are many definitions of culture and usually they are all correct. Great French historian Fernand Braudel once described culture as the oldest content of history. He was right, because history of human society starts with the culture of identification, with culture in its basic artistic or other expression. Other thinkers who emphasize the dialogue as a dimension of culture would speak about culture as a way of strengthening peace or as a way to strengthen dialogue and alliances of civilizations. Some would recall that the Charter of UNESCO speaks about the culture of peace as something that begins in the minds of men. Culture is an important factor of the strengthening of peace. Earlier this morning we were reminded that we should look at cultural heritage and at the agenda of culture in general not in terms of ownership or property but rather in terms of its possibilities. This was a very important thought, which, I believe, will inspire our work at this meeting and later on.

Mr President,

Let me add another dimension to many dimensions they were described in the definition of culture. Culture is a never-ending process that has its origins, its history, but it also has its current experience and it has, very importantly, its future. So when we are talking about cultural heritage we are not talking only about distant history or history in general, but about attitudes towards culture today and about our destiny for tomorrow. Let me mention an example. In February this year, I visited Skopje, the place, which invites thinking about ancient history. However, one of the most powerful experiences in Skopje was a visit to the gallery of contemporary painting. There, I have seen such a wonderful display of cultural creativity of the entire region that I thought that modern painting in fact belongs to the most important aspects of cultural heritage in the region of South-East Europe. The experience convinced me that we have to think about our cultural heritage in a broad, holistic way and see what can be done to strengthen it with a view to the future cultural development. We have to be practical, we have to be organized and we have to find ways of exchanging experience, ways to transfer knowledge, to identify and to support best practices.

As many other countries, Slovenia has ratified all the necessary international conventions, we participate in a variety of projects and we understand the great importance of international forums such as UNESCO and, more recently, the Council of Europe as means of practical cooperation. We are very happy to see that in the Council of Europe the cultural dimension is moving more and more towards the centre of its attention. We are happy to see that UNESCO is developing ever more interesting ideas and programmes in the area of culture. One of the areas in which culture has a special importance is tourism. Tourism is a great opportunity, especially if one keeps in mind that the entire development of tourism is moving towards its cultural dimensions. Modern tourists need cultural elements in their programmes. They need culture as a source of inspiration for the choice of destinations. But we also heard in a very inspiring statement by Mr Mesić, President of Croatia, about problems that characterize this tendency, problems which are resulting from our contemporary economic reality, especially in the regions of South and East Europe. Our economic transition has been difficult and has not yet been completed. We have to put together our forces to develop policies, which will indeed offer tourists the best we can offer. We also have to demonstrate that we are serious about preservation of cultural heritage and that we would like it to have a future. Slovenia is committed to this kind of approach and has been participating since 2003 in different programmes for the preservation of cultural and national heritage in South and East Europe. In particular, we are supporting the project formulation and development of the methodology and the implementation of final projects in this domain.

I would like to emphasize a particular dimension of this approach and the variety of activities, which we pursue in Southeast Europe, i.e. the expansion of our partnerships. The region has already organized a series of summits. This is the seventh summit on cultural heritage and the earlier summits represent an important framework of cooperation among our countries. We are also very supportive of UNESCO and Council of Europe. In addition, we in Slovenia believe that we all need to strengthen the ties with the EU and with private sector in the field of culture and cultural cooperation as important partners to Governments.

It was already mentioned that Slovenia has during its presidency of the EU started what is called Ljubljana process which we hope will continue in the future with success with which has been conducted so far. EU is an important partner and will be helpful in the future. Currently, Slovenia is chairing the Council of Europe and we would like to help in the process of moving the cultural elements of Council of Europe's work more and more to the centre of that organization's activity. These are some among the reasons why we have decided to convene a ministerial conference of the Ljubljana process. This meeting will take place on the 6th to 7th November this year in Ljubljana and we hope that it will lead to further progress.

When we talk about progress we obviously mean the evaluation of work done so far, a very clear assessment of where we are and also a practical definition of continuity. We have to be practical, we have to be persistent and we have to have a long-term vision. We have to think about the transformational effects of culture for the future. When I emphasize continuity I would also like to say that the regional project for cultural and national heritage in Southeastern Europe has been going on for a while now and continuity for the future will demonstrate, that it is a project of great quality and as such needs to be supported.

Finally Mr President,

I would like to say just a few words about the importance of the Cetinje declaration. This meeting produced a document that contains all the necessary concepts and defines the elements of cultural policy with the necessary clarity and in a very systematic way. I believe that we have reached the point at which we already have a very solid platform for our future activity. I would like to say, Mr President that our delegation is supporting the Cetinje declaration. We support ideas that were expressed a round this table, with respect to various projects that have been proposed. There are many reasons why countries present around this table have to cooperate in the future.

Let me, in conclusion, emphasize once again: Culture is something that has to be seen as a matter of continuity. Something, which has its history and has its present day identity, but which also has future, and we have to think about all this. We have to nurture our cultural cooperation and support the continuation of practice of convening the summits of heads of states of Southeast Europe to do precisely that.