The Eleventh Meeting of the RCC Task Force on Culture and Society was held on 28 and 29 April 2015 in Durrës, Albania.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the regional work plan of the TFCS for the 2015, the ongoing activities for promotion of the three Regional Programmes within the Cultural and Creative Sectors Dimension of the SEE2020 Strategy, monitoring and assessment, existing EU funding mechanisms in the field of culture, potential joint regional projects and activities. EuroClio was represented by two members of its core team for the Project “Rethinking History Education.” Milos Vukanovic (Montenegro) and Fatmiroshe Xhemajli (Albania) gave a presentation about the work and ideas of EuroClio to the meeting and its participants.
Based on the initiative from the Montenegrin National IPA Coordinator (NIPAC) to draw more attention to the significant role of culture and creative sectors in the overall economic and social development of our region, representatives of the NIPACs from the economies participating in the SEE2020 Strategy attended the second day of the meeting dedicated to the presentation of regional programmes and support their inclusion within priority areas, and to the Montenegrin proposal on the “Culture for Integration and Growth: Utilizing the economic and reputational value of Cultural Heritage in Western Balkans”. It was concluded that cultural and creative sectors are strong contributors to economic growth and integration and should be included within the financing of Multi-country IPA as one of the priority areas.
The meeting also gathered TFCS members from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, RCC, European Commission, representatives of SEECP Secretariat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania, representatives of NIPAC offices from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, representatives of Creative Europe Programme (EC), EU Delegation in Tirana, RCC external experts from audio visual sector and design, Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), and Cooperation and Development Institute.
