The project « FROM LOCAL IDENTITIES TO EUROPEAN IDENTITY » was funded with the support of the European Union under the Programme "Europe for Citizens"

 

 

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Applicable to the Strand 2 – Measure 2.1 "Town-Twinning”

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Participation: The project “From Local Identities to European Identity” involved 242 citizens (180 outside Bosnia-Herzegovina), notably 45 participants from the Bač Municipality(Serbia), 49 participants from the Rakovica Municipality (Croatia), 6 participants from the Aquileia Municipality, 15 from the Recanati Municipality and 17 from the City of Tarcento (Italy), 34 participants from Italy and Croatia, INGO Adriatic Greenet (Italy), 15 participants from the Piran Municipality (Slovenia), 27 participants from the Čapljina Municipality and 35 from the Stolac Municipality (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

65 participants (27%) were children from each country, and the 57% of the total number of participants were women.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Stolac and Čapljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 28/04/2017 to 01/05/2017.

 

Short description:

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The day of 28/04/2017 was dedicated to:

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• Arrival by bus of all foreign delegation from Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia and their accommodation in several locations;

• Welcome dinner in Čapljina with:

     - presentation of local traditional music, dance and customs

     - presentation of previous meetings of the Network “I Care for…Europe”

     - presentation of program activities during the International Event and

     - welcoming interventions of each Local Authority representative.

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The day 29/04/2017 was dedicated to:

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• In the morning, at the High School in Stolac, was the exhibition “Once upon a time... in Europe”: Presentation of local examples of Intangible Cultural Heritage by young participants from 8 delegation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Serbia, with the full engagement of young participants from every delegation, who have shown traditional customs, music, dances, crafts, food...

• After common lunch, the programme continued with three different types of activities:

1) About 40 stakeholders (representatives of all involved communities) participated in the seminar and workshop with experts from Adriatic GreeNet and ISIG (International Sociology Institute of Gorizia) on the value of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Starting with the presentation of the Official Communication of the European Commission “Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe” and the UNESCO “Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage”, participants divided into groups, have been working on:

     - the role of intangible heritage to foster local communities’ capacity to act as “Custodians” of their local valuable identities & incubators of sustainable development practices, especially in the tourism sector;

     - joint concrete actions to promote the local cultural, natural & intangible heritage for sustainable tourism development of partner communities.

2) At the same time, in the Sports Hall in Stolac, 65 children participated:

     - in traditional sports competitions, divided into several mixed groups (by gender, by nationality and age) and what prompted the creation of a good atmosphere among all young participants

     - from 5 to 7 p.m. all young were involved in creative workshops with the help of several animators.

3) The rest of adult participants visited cultural monuments in Stolac, revealing the richness of various cultural traces in the city.

 

The day 30/04/2017 was dedicated to:

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• In the morning: all participants had sightseeing of the old medieval town Počitelj and the ancient Roman Villa Rustica in Mogorjelo in the Čapljina Municipality, organized by the Tourist Agency with the involvement of local community.

• After the joint lunch: the sightseeing of other cultural Herzegovinian sites of high cultural interest such as the “Old Bridge” in Mostar (UNESCO World Heritage), the Tekke of Dervishes in Blagaj & the Necropolis of Stećaks' tombstones Radimlja (UNESCO World Heritage)

• A joint final dinner in Stolac allowed participants to exchange impressions and emotions after all the cultural sightseeing, because for most of them this was the first visit to this part of Europe.

 

The day 01/05/2017 was dedicated to:

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• Presentation of the webpage https://europeanidentitylo.wixsite.com/localeu dedicated to the project.

• Farewell greetings among all participants and departure from each delegation

• Final press conference (before the International Event as well as during the event in Bosnia and Herzegovina - several interviews were given for media and press conferences were organized in each partner community).