In 24-25 September 2019, the focus of EPICAH project implementation work was transferred to the Technology Center of the city of Satu Mare, Romania. The program of 2 days’ work that was successfully carried out included, meetings between the members of the Project Monitoring Committee, a meeting of the project experts, the organization of a Thematic Seminar, as well as study visits to the cross-border area of North-West Romania. The Association for Intra-Community Development of the Satu Mare Prefecture was responsible for organizing the work, while representatives of all the project partners from 8 different countries participated. The Greek side was represented by officials of the Regional Development Fund of Western Macedonia on behalf of the Region of Western Macedonia.
In detail, the program of the 2 day included:
- On Wednesday 24 September, parallel meetings of the Experts and the Steering Committee of the project were held, in the context of which, among other things, the conclusions of the study visits and the thematic seminar that took place in Estonia were presented and discussed, as well as matters of organization of the upcoming forum to be held in November in Brussels, for the formulation of proposals to improve and strengthen the common European policy for the tourism and cross-border cultural heritage, to the European Commission. Also, an assessment was made of the course of implementation of the physical and financial object of the project and management issues were discussed. In the afternoon of the same day, in the framework of the Thematic Seminar, detailed projects implemented in the Romania-Hungary cross-border area in the field of cultural heritage and tourism, by Hungary-Romania cross-border programs and Interreg V A Romania-Hungary programs were presented.
The seminar was followed by a study visit to Medieşu-Aurit (Romania), where examples of good practice from two successful projects were presented.
- On Thursday 25 September, study visits, representatives of experts in the field of cross-border culture and project managers from 9 countries participating in the implementation of the EPICAH project were carried out, to the castle of Carei (Romania), to the medieval churches in Máriapócs (Hungary), as well as to the medieval churches of Acâş and Beltiug (Romania).
The main goal of the implementation of the EPICAH initiative is to highlight and promote the application of such good practices, forming a new concept and a differentiated standard model of management and exploitation of the cultural and environmental value of cross-border areas. The highlighting and promotion of interventions for the proper management of the cultural and natural stock contribute to the dynamic increase of tourist activity in the cross-border areas, essentially creating a new unique tourist product, on a pan-European scale
