La întâlnirea pregătitoare a Conferinței Mondiale UNESCO, de Politici Culturale și Dezvoltare Sustenabilă ”Mondiacult 2022”

A treia sesiune a 

Regional Online Consultation – Europe and North America 

13 December 2021

                                                     organizat online, în pregătirea: 

a avut pe agendă patru titluri tematice. În cadrul panelului ”păstrarea și promovarea Patrimoniului Cultural pentru incluziune socială, dialog și pace” am relevat următoarele aspecte:

Excellencies, dear colleagues and participants,

Please allow me to express my sincere appreciation and congratulate UNESCO and Mrs Nina Obuljen-Koržinek, Minister of Culture of Croatia, for organising this consultation for the preparation of UNESCO World Conference Mondiacult 2022, especially in these times of crisis.

Since becoming part of UNESCO, Romania has been an active partner in the implementation of all its 7 Conventions in the field of culture. We strongly appreciate UNESCO’s support and the valuable instruments UNESCO has provided so far in policy making, which help us cope with the challenges of a continuously changing world.

Cultural heritage is fundamental for sustainable development and, in order to protect it, an integrated approach is vital. By exploiting the synergies between cultural policies and digital, environmental and tourism-related ones, culture can reach its important potential in maintaining peace and foster intercultural dialogue. In this regard, we have included culture in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, targeting to speed up the restoration of heritage buildings and to further develop their potential in achieving the green and digital transition. Therefore, we are placing culture in the centre of the measures taken for fostering cultural education, innovation, sustainable tourism and employment.

Important support measures have been taken to alleviate vulnerabilities of the cultural and creative sectors, further aggravated by the pandemic:

· The introduction of culture into Romania’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2030, in connection with several SDGS, such as SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The integration of culture alongside SDG 16, in particular, is meant to ensure and encourage dialogue with national minorities with a view to improving decision-making through equal access for all citizens and participation in the economic, social and political life. The objective is to fight preconceptions and discrimination in all its forms and encourage interethnic dialogue, common values and cultural and linguistic diversity.

· We are preparing and planning a national strategy for the cultural and creative sectors, whose objectives and priorities will be connected with the sustainable development goals of the Agenda 2030. We will therefore ensure a strategic framework that builds a vision for a sustainable future that has cultural heritage and culture at its core.

· Another important landmark is the launch, at the beginning of this month, of the UNESCO project Culture 2030 Indicators both at national and at city level. The Ministry of Culture commissioned the National Institute for Cultural Research and Training to calculate 22 indicators that will show the contribution of culture to sustainable development. This strong advocacy tool enhances the role of culture as a driving force and consolidates the dialogue across various sectors and different levels of governance. Building on the previous experience we had in implementing the predecessor of this project, the Culture for Development Indicators, (included in the National Voluntary Review of Romania in 2018), our target is now the inclusion of the respective results in the next Voluntary National Review to be presented at the High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development.

· Ensuring efficient protection of cultural heritage through community involvement and participatory mechanisms are also important. We intend to address this issue through various measures, including the ratification of the Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, thus strengthening the multilateral framework and cooperation on the matter.

The aforementioned measures are meant to underline the steps taken in Romania for bringing closer the culture to the sustainable development in an attempt of both recognizing the culture’s evidence-based contribution and ensuring its greater visibility. We have to further strengthen the cooperation as it is now our common duty to build on our legacy in order to further develop and implement cross-cutting policies that allow cultural heritage to contribute to social inclusion, dialogue and peace.

We need to act together. Together, we need to find efficient, reactive and pragmatic solutions to protect cultural heritage as culture is an important tool in the multilateral diplomacy.

Thank you very much!



* mulțumiri colegelor Maria Ionescu-Mariț și Cristina Cotenescu pentru întregul sprijin!