The Creative Europe Programme office was established in Ukraine in 2015 after the competition for the desk chief organized by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. During 2016-2017, the Ukrainian desk was funded from the ministerial budget distributing information about the programme and grant opportunities through numerous meetings and workshops in different cities and towns.
In 2015, the EU/Council of Europe project Community-led Urban Strategies in Historic Towns (COMUS) started in Ukraine, as well as in other Eastern Partnership countries, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Belarus. COMUS was implemented as part of the Eastern Partnership Programme for exploring and testing innovative planning models for small- and medium-sized historic towns capable of improving the quality of life and ensure sustainable social and economic development. Ukraine was represented in the project by three pilot towns (the largest number): Lutsk, Zhovkva and Pryluky. The project was realized in partnership with the Organisation of World Heritage Cities (http://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/comus/home).
The EU project CHOICE – Cultural Heritage: Opportunity for Improving Civic Engagement – has been developed and implemented (2015–2017) in the four Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. CHOICE is aimed at enhancing civil society’s role and building its capacities to develop a heritage-friendly living environment. A partner consortium was made up of the following entities: the Association of Local Democracy Agencies, ALDA (France); the International Non-Governmental Organisation EuroBelarus (Vilnius, Lithuania); the Centre for Cultural Management (Lviv, Ukraine); the National ICOM Committee (Chisinau, Moldova); the Educational Research Foundation Millennium (Yerevan, Armenia); and the Public Association Centre for Social Innovations (Minsk, Belarus).
In November 2017, the Third Summit of the Eastern Partnership Programme “Culture and Creativity” (“Culture II”) Supervisory Board was held in Brussels, summarizing the achievements. As the first Vice Minister of Culture of Ukraine, S. Fomenko, stated, the programme became an important tool for developing cultural and creative industries in Ukraine. A set of projects and initiatives were realised within the frames of the programme, including the project “UNESCO Culture for Development Indicators” defining the interrelationship between culture and general development, sectoral findings of cultural management (http://mincult.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=245304524&cat_id=244913751). Culture for Development Indicators for Ukraine was an initiative by the European Union-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme, funded by the European Union. The initiative is based upon UNESCO’s Culture for Development Indicators methodology, which has been successfully implemented in many countries across the world. Implementation of the CDIS project in Ukraine began in March 2016 and ended in March 2017. It was realized by the Development Centre “Democracy through Culture” acting as the National Leading Partner.
Ukraine became a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 12 May 1954. Ukraine’s Permanent mission to UNESCO has operated since December 1962, with its headquarters in Paris. Ukraine has ratified UNESCO conventions concerning cultural heritage (architectural, underwater and intangible), diversity of cultural expressions. In 2014, Ukraine submitted to the Secretariat of UNESCO the regular report on implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions prepared by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Centre for Cultural Studies. It states, among others, the following:
For efficient implementation of the provisions of the Convention 2005, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine worked out and adopted an Action Plan for 2013-2014 which was approved by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine on humanitarian issues. All stakeholders in culture were involved to develop this Action Plan and its implementation, such as local authorities, municipalities and civil society.
In 2015, Ukraine submitted to the Secretariat of UNESCO its Periodic Report on the Implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, presented in December 2016 at the 11th Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Addis Ababa. In 2017, Ukraine joined the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe under the auspices of UNESCO in Sofia (Bulgaria), at the last session of the General Assembly. So far, there are 14 member states: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Comments are closed.