7th Intergovernmental Meeting of 7 States and Representative Communities
Tavira – 8 September 2017 – 10 a.m.
Hotel Vila Galé Albacora – auditorium
CONCLUSIONS
Presence of national delegations :
Portugal : Jorge Botelho (Mayor of Tavira) , Jorge Queiroz (Head of Tavira Culture, Heritage and Museums Division) , Vítor Barros (Coordinator of the Monitoring Group for the Protection and Promotion of the Mediterranean Diet) and Pedro Teixeira (Agriculture and Rural Development General Director, Agriculture, Forest and Rural Development Ministry of Portugal)
Croatia: Mirna Bojic (Ministry of Culture), Jelena Ivanisevic (researcher of the Zagreb Institute for Ethnological and Folklore) and António Skarpa (Mayor of Stari Grad).
Cyprus: Thekla Papantoniou (Officer of the Cyprus National Commission of UNESCO) and Nicky Kafkalia (Representative of the emblematic community of Agros).
Greece: Amalia Liatou (Directorate of Agricultural Policy, Ministry of Rural Development & Food) and Vicky Inglezou (Maniatakeion Foundation, Representative of the emblematic community of Koroni).
Morocco: Dalila El Harras (Chefchaouen Development Agency, Representative of the emblematic community of Chefchaouen) and Elias Afassi (Chefchaouen Development Agency)
Italy: Stefano Pisani (Mayor of Pollica), Laura Rossi (Researcher in CREA – Centro di ricerca per gli alimenti e la nutrizione) and Alessandro Zagarella (UNESCO Expert in Ministry of Food Agriculture and Forest).
Spain: Elisa De Cabo de La Vega (Subdirector in Cultural Heritage Directorate of Spain) and Juan Manuel Ruiz Liso (General Director of Fundación Cientifica Caja Rural de Soria, Representative of the emblematic community of Soria).
1- Greetings and intervention by the Portuguese authorities.
The following speakers, Pedro Teixeira, General Director of Agriculture and Rural Development, (representing the Minister of Agriculture) and the Mayor of Tavira, Jorge Botelho, reaffirmed the commitment of Portugal and Tavira to preserving and promoting the Mediterranean Diet together with the remaining six representative States and Communities, thanking the presence and contribution of all delegations.
2- Balance of Portuguese presidency / coordination in 2016/2017.
Portugal presented the 2016/2017 coordination report with interventions by Vítor Barros and Jorge Queiroz, who referred in detail to the balance of the International Conference held on 9 and 10 May 2017 at the University of Algarve and the main reflections. The conference had the participation of the 7 States, registered 44 interventions on the various themes that integrate the concept of Mediterranean diet.
3- Information from each State / Representative Community on activities carried out in the period 2016/2017.
The delegations present presented detailed reports on the activities carried out in 2016/2017. A clear breakthrough in the Mediterranean diet and in the joint work at national and community levels around the various dimensions of the Safeguard Plan has been highlighted as examples:
In the valorisation of the Mediterranean food: (Mediterranean Local Cuisines and “Paneloion – extra virgin olive oil Contest (Greece),” Festival of Salads, Fruits and vegetables “(Croatia), …
Transmission to the new generations: World Heritage Youth Forum and National Mediterranean Diet Week (Soria),
Structuring and development of Museums of the Mediterranean Diet (Pioppi / Cilento, Chefchaouen, Tavira and Soria) and new exhibition projects (Zagreb, Croatia),
Environmental component: Biodiversity Garden (Chefchaouen), Seminar on the valorisation of the cultural landscapes of the Algarve (Tavira),
Important Fairs and Festivals of the Mediterranean Diet in Tavira (Portugal), Pollica (Italy), Koroni (Greece), Hvar and Brac Festival (Croatia),
Inventory works such as “Traditional Recipes” in Agros / Cyprus, National Plan for Intangible Heritage (Spain), Ethnographic Museum of Istria (Croatia), …
Conferences and new university initiatives and scientific organizations: Conference Algarve University (Portugal), University of Campania (Italy), “Month of the Heart” (Portuguese Foundation of Cardiology – Portugal). “Agrifood traditions as cultural Heritage (Greece) …
Numerous editions have been mentioned and the book on DM edited by Chefchaouen (Morocco)
4- Presentation of proposals for the organizational strengthening of the DM network and common projects.
Italy submitted a proposal for the integration of the 7 States and Representative Communities in a study on the longevity of the populations, one initiative of the University of Campania. The R.C.s from Pollica, Koroni and Tavira confirmed their interest in participating.
Portugal presented five proposals for organizational improvement and streamlining of the network:
- Updating the meeting points of each Representative State / Community indicating a contact substitute in the case of an impediment of the holder;
- The international website of MD/Greece/MEICH should be energized. It has been defined that the next coordination country will agree with Greece the measures of reactivation of the page.
- Each annual coordination will produce a newsletter with the news of the 7 States / R.C. for distribution in each country via internet.
- The creation of the “Network of Museums of the Mediterranean Diet” to jointly work together in inventory, research projects, exhibitions, conferences… The first coordination will be initially responsibility of the “Museo Vivente della Dieta Mediterrânea de Pollicca” (Italy) for being the oldest one.
- Elaboration of a calendar of Fairs and Festivals of the Mediterranean Diet in each Country for disclosure on the website of the MD.
- Proposal to produce a documentary film about the Mediterranean Diet in the 7 States / R.C. for distribution on TV channels, festivals, etc … Portugal was in charge of presenting a detailed proposal in the coming months to all the R.C.
5- Proposal and formal acceptance of the coordination for 2017/2018.
- The Croatian delegation read a letter from the Croatian Minister of Culture Nina Obuljen Korzinek, accepting the coordination of the 7 States for the period 2017/2018.
- As an indication of the respective delegations, the interest of Spain in the coordination was indicated to 2018/2019 and of Morocco to 2019/2020.
MD Portuguese Coordination of 7 Countries and 7 Representative Communities
Tavira, September 8th 2017