We see this program as a common benefit - through our national cultural values ​​to enrich the colorfulness of the identity map of Europe and through dialogue and mutual respect to create a common cultural space, emphasizedthe Minister for Culture Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska yesterday afternoon at the ceremony of The Cultural Routes Forum of the Council of Europe, which took place in Chania, Crete.

The Ministry of Culture informs today that cthe ceremony was opened by Ambassador Patrick Engelberg, Chairman of the Statutory Committee of the Agreement on the Partial Expansion of Cultural Routes 2022, who congratulated the inclusion of the new members, North Macedonia, Lebanon and Albania.

 Minister Kostadinovska-Stojchevska expressed gratitude that North Macedonia is becoming part of this unique initiative.

- We are and want to be guardians and builders of European values. And through these cultural routes, we open our country to complement the rich European history. We already find 'stations' in the established 48 cultural routes – from the path of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, women writers, to the path of stories; from the path of ceramics to the path of wine and olives, but we have ideas and energy for new journeys. Why not: cultural routes on the aqueducts, on the European lakes, on the European mountain tops, the road of the eel, to the roads of tastes that cross and connect us at the table, said Kostadinovska-Stojchevska.

 So far North Macedonia, through several companies, was part of the Route of Olive Trees and the Wine Route, Iter Vitis. Now, as an equal member, the Ministry points out, our country has a broad platform for joining European networks for promotion and affirmation in all fields of the social and economic sector.

- Cultural routes enable development in the field of culture, but also the economy and sustainable tourism capacity of each country, the promotion of relations and communication in the protection of cultural and natural heritage, in architecture and every kind of uniqueness that cultural routes offer to connect through time and the space of Europe, using the benefits of history, but also of the current achievements of each country, the Ministry of Culture said. 

Through the Cultural Routes, the Council of Europe promotes and affirms human rights, cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and mutual exchange across borders.