Cioroianu pleads for extension of national proposals for inclusion in UNESCO's world heritage list

Romania's Ambassador to UNESCO, Adrian Cioroianu, on Monday pleaded for the extension of the national list of proposals for inclusion in UNESCO's world heritage list, while mentioning the attraction of European funds as a solution for supporting the maintenance of the sites.

'The most important thing before we can have these items included with the UNESCO list is to have them included with the national list first. If they are not considered national priorities, of course that no one will come to do the job in our stead,' Cioroianu stated at the meeting of the joint parliamentary committee for the relation with UNESCO.

He underscored how important it is that the submissions for attraction of European funds needed in order to support the maintenance of the sites be 'impeccable.'

'There are certain sites related to which the Ministry of Culture can't really tell whose responsibility they are at the present. For, while the local authorities claim they are waiting for solutions to come from the Ministry, in fact they are the ones that should take charge of the sites, as it happened in all the other countries that were confronted with a similar situation, former communist countries, which means that the submission papers should really be complete (...) You cannot do anything unless you have prepared the documents thoroughly, even if you might think some of the proposals won't stand a chance, at least in the beginning. They all should be very well documented, the submission files should be impeccable,' Cioroianu said.

According to him, the 'modest list' of proposals Romania has right now for inclusion in the UNESCO's heritage list could represent an advantage.

'The waiting list must be enlarged and we must explain the local...