The 5th intergovernmental meeting of the network of the seven countries inscribed to the Mediterranean Diet according to UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanities was successfully held on Monday 20 April 2015 under the Coordination of Greece. The meeting took place in the premises of the Harokopio University in Athens. The representatives of the competent Ministries of Croatia, Italy, Portugal Spain and Greece, along with the Mayors of the Emblematic communities, were present. The Moroccan and Cypriot delegates were absent.
The meeting started with a welcome address from the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy, Mr. Panagiotis Sgouridis, the Rector of the Harokopio University, Prof. the vice Rector of Agricultural University of Athens and the General Director of the Directorate for Sustainable Development of the Ministry, Dr. K. Angelakis.
The Deputy Minister referred to the Ministry in the framework of the completion of the mandate of Greece to set a coordination point hosted in Greece for the first year (01 May 2014-30 April 2015) regarding the network of seven countries. The scope of the meeting was to strengthen collaboration and to present the undertaken work by the Ministry during the year of its coordination. The Greek proposal concerned the appointment of a body within the structure of MAICh, which served the needs of a coordination tool, with no cost for the member states.
The Greek coordination team explicitly presented through a series of presentations the work fulfilled in the past year.
Prof. George Baourakis, Director of CIHEAM-MAI Chania, supported that during the last year MAI Chania worked on creating the official public website “www.mediterradiet.org” for the Mediterranean Diet, the 3 monthly Newsletters, and submitted for approval the proposal of the research program “EDUTERRA” under HORIZON 2020.
The Mayor of Pylos-Nestor, Mr. Dimitris Kafantaris, also announced the organization of the Mediterranean Diet Festival in Koroni on 16-18 July 2015 and invited the guests to participate towards a common goal of strengthening dialogue and synergies both within and outside its borders.
The representatives of the participating countries reported on the activities that they have worked on during the period May 2014- April 2015
Presentation of Spanish delegation
Presentation of Portugese delegation
Presentation of Croatian delegetion
The Italian delegates presented the proposal for the Italian coordination during the period May 2015 – April 2016 and announced the Mediterranean Diet week (14-20 September) which will take place at EXPO2015 in Milan. At the trade fair, there will be specific space and time allotted for each community to present their promotion of the Mediterranean Diet.
Presentation of Italian delegation
The Mayor of Pollica, Mr. Pisani, described the premises KIP Pavillon EXPO2015 where the Mediterranean Diet week will take place.
Outcomes
It was decided unanimously by the participants that CIHEAM MAI Chania will continue its role in coordinating the contributions of member countries in the development of the website and the newsletter. It was also decided that Italy will draft and send a framework for the “White Paper” for the Mediterranean Diet, a commitment that was decided in the previous meeting. The countries will be invited to send comments and observations to reflect a common Mediterranean Diet Strategy.
Following the previous Intergovernmental meeting held on 28-29 April 2014 in Cyprus, Italy takes over the coordination of the network of the seven countries from May 1, 2015 until April 30, 2016.
Finally, the participants unanimously agreed for Portugal to take over the role of coordinator straight after Italy.
The meeting finished with a photograph session of all the participants.
