Serbia joins UNESCO World Heritage Committee

Serbia has been elected as member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at its 36th General Conference which is being held in Paris, Tanjug learned at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is the first time Serbia has become a member of that body since its foundation.

Serbian Minister of Culture Predrag Markovic told Tanjug on Monday that Serbia was elected on the first round of voting together with Germany.

He underlined that the countries which were elected as committee members on the first round of voting secured 86 votes out of 181.

“This is a major victory for Serbia, which crowns three years of teamwork. This is a great recognition, and an indicator that Serbia is able to preserve its own, as well as the heritage of other countries,” Markovic told Tanjug.

Markovic stressed that Serbia's committee membership is the result of the teamwork of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and other relevant institutions and individuals that contributed to the process, especially Vera Pavlovic Loncarski, director of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute.

The minister also recalled that two months ago, problems occurred whether the monasteries in Kosovo-Metohija will be registered in the World Heritage List as Serbian or Kosovar, but that thanks to the teamwork that problem was successfully overcome.

Source: Beta, Fonet