CultMin Ivascu: All Romanians should celebrate the Centennial, forgetting about their political colours

All Romanians should celebrate the Great Union Centennial, as a unique moment when they can forget about their political colors, said the Minister of Culture, George Ivascu, on Friday, at the Victoria Governmental Palace.

"All Romanians should celebrate the Great Union Centennial, as a unique moment when they can forget about their political colors, the same as our great ancestors did," said Ivascu, after participating in the Inter-ministerial Centennial Committee.

According to him, on Friday, the Committee approved 350 projects/manifestations/actions worth a total of 50,055,165 lei, out of which 86 belonged to the central public authorities, worth a total of 16,896,865 lei and 264 to the territorial-administrative units, worth a total of 33,158,300 lei.

"There have been and there will continue to be organized - increasingly more in the second half of the year, with a peak, of course, on December 1 2018 - a lot of actions and activities at the Romanian Government level, and also at the level of other central institutions, such as the Romanian Academy, TVR [national television broadcaster], the Romanian Cultural Institute, and also at the level of the local authorities," said Ivascu.

He specified that 150 million lei were earmarked for the celebration of the Great Union Centennial - 50 million for the territorial-administrative units, 50 million for the central institutions and 50 millions for the NGOs.

"For the first time, it was drafted and adopted the Programmatic Document including the Strategy for the Celebration of the Great Union Centennial, including the concept, principles, topics and types of action. It establishes that the celebration of the Centennial must be done in the European and North-Atlantic context of the contemporary and future Romania," said Ivascu.

Moreover, the Ministry of Culture announced that the building process is already underway in the case of the two monuments dedicated to the Union to be erected in Arad and Alba-Iulia, with the involvement of the local authorities.

"After 25 years of delays, we managed to sign the agreement for the monument to be erected in Alba-Iulia. I went there myself to the two cities, where I met many times with all the institutions and persons involved in building these monuments. We are always in touch, in order to get sure that the works will be carry out according to the agreed terms," said Ivascu.

The Minister also presented other projects of the Ministry of Culture, Ro-Cultura, with a total budget exceeding 29 million euros; Timisoara - European Cultural Capital 2021; the strategic programme "European Cities"; the Romania-France Cultural Season: the manifestations during the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union and Romania's participation as guest of honour in the Europalia International Art Festival.