🇮🇹 Consiglio regionale del Veneto
Local Heritage As Driver For International Policies
01/01/2018 – 22/06/2022
Type of initiative
Other
Short description of the initiative
The Veneto Regional Council, in an attempt to give voice to the commitments undertaken by the Regional Legislative Assemblies of the European Union during the XV CALRE Plenary Conference (L’Aquila Declaration, 2011), has promoted several initiatives to strengthen collaboration, promote exchanges of experiences and develop strategies to increase the awareness of regional authorities for the growth of a European culture.
In collaboration with the Regional Ministry of Culture, since 2018 it has launched an experimental project involving European legislative assemblies, regional governments and municipalities, as well as various Italian and foreign universities, around a theme of transversal interest concerning the creation of a cultural itinerary linked to the figure of Pietro Querini and the journey he undertook in 1431, which led him from Crete (Greece) to the Lofoten Islands (Norway), by sea, and then back to Venice, by land, crossing a large part of Europe.
These subjects have already had the opportunity to exchange views – during a meeting organised by the Regional Council – highlighting the potential and spin-offs in the economic fabric and smart companies of the culture and tourism sectors and also in relation to the exchange of good practices on the theme of innovative institutional policies at the service of universities and the world of research, as well as on themes and policies with a spin-off in the social fabric.
Main features of the initiative
For the Council of Europe, cultural itineraries are a tool to demonstrate, through transversal and transnational routes, that the cultural heritage of the different European countries is actually a common heritage. They are, therefore, primarily a vehicle for communication and exchange between nations and cultures, i.e. a tool for consolidating European identity, a virtuous process of democratic re-appropriation of one’s own being as a community (Becker Steinecke, 1993).
Thus, the International Cultural Association was set up to create the cultural itinerary ‘Via Querinissima, from myth to history’ in accordance with the canons prescribed by the Council of Europe, which advocates and supports the initiative.
The founder partners are: Veneto Region; Nordland County Council – Norway; Region of Vasta Goteland – Sweden; Municipality of Cadiz – Spain; Port System Authority of the Northern Adriatic Sea Ports of Venice and Chioggia – Italy; Venerable Confraternity of bacalà Vicenza Italy; Pro loco – of Sandrigo – Italy; CERS Italy – Italy.
The next countries to join are the municipality of : Heraklion , Grece; Bodo and Rost -Norway; Venice.
It is only right to point out how this project stimulates transnational cooperation capable of implementing a network between different territories with a view to collaboration and networking of both economic and cultural experiences, the main tool supporting the development policies of local authorities aimed at enhancing alternative routes under the banner of sustainability and slow tourism.
Role of the assembly in the success of the initiative
The Veneto Regional Council assumed the role of coordinator and promoter with foreing countries for the implementation of the Association and assumed the role of interlocutor with the Council of Europe and the Universities to create an interdisciplinary scientific committee to develop research and debate in the various subjects.
European orientation of the initiative
The initiative aims at safeguarding and promotioning of the common European heritage connected to the story of Pietro Querini. The network created by this Association represent a starting point for the development of European projects exchange of practices and enforcement of policy processes
The participation of the Veneto Region – Government and Council – is an opportunity “to strengthen collaboration, in order to improve mutual knowledge, promote exchanges of experiences, activate collaborations, and develop strategies to make regional authorities more aware of the growth of a European culture “in order to highlight more clearly the similarities between the various regional realities and the more macroscopic differences, greater mutual knowledge would enable the European regional legislative assemblies to more consciously represent regional demands before the European institutions.
It would also be a prerequisite for more harmonious action by the Conference and the starting point for the conclusion, in various areas, of cooperation agreements between two or more regions to develop projects aimed at resolving shared problems.” (Conference of European Legislative Assemblies CALRE . Treaty of L’Aquila 2011).
Documentation