Mayors, representatives of public institutions, councillors, cultural operators, and cultural policy experts; representatives of Ministries of culture and local self-governments from Macedonia and France (Basse-Normandie) as well as representatives form the Regional Council of Basse-Normandie, will take part in the conference.

Conference will be open by:
Isabelle Guisnel, incumbent Ambassador of France in Macedonia
Musa Xhafferi, Minister of Local Self-Government and
Dragan Nedeljković, Vice Minister of Culture

Conference is organised in two main sessions:
Session 1: Decentralization in culture, in Basse-Normandie and Macedonia – The role of culture and cultural policy and
Session 2: Participative processes on local level and the role of culture in local development.

Panellists:
Alain Lepareur, Aleksandar Petreski, Arnaud Fontaine, Claire Tangy, Frédéric Léveillé, Goran Petrov, Isabelle Labiche-Mittendorf, Jovan Šurbanovski, Kléber Arhoul, Marie Christine Hoflack, Marc Pottier, Mirjana Apostolova, Musa Xhafferi, Nada Peševa, Nataša Poplavska, Nikola Gelevski, Rade Ilievski, Ruse Arsov, Sašo Bogdanovski.

Moderators: Iskra Gešoska & Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski
Project coordinator: Violeta Kachakova

Overall Programme of the Conference

France introduces the process of decentralisation in the 1960s. Therefore the experiences, gain from this process, are numerous. Currently, France is revising the instruments and model of decentralisation, which will be presented by the panellists form Basse-Normanide.
On the other hand, the French model of decentralisation was taken as a role model in Macedonia. In particular, the decentralisation in culture in Macedonia began in 2003 with the decision of the National Government for establishment of a Network of national institutions in the filed of culture. This network initiated relocation of the responsibilities for culture from the central power to the municipalities. Further on, in 2004 the Law on territorial organisation and the Law on the City of Skopje were adopted. Moreover, the decentralisations in culture in one of the key priorities of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia.

Conference will create a platform for exchange of knowledge and experience of the process of decentralisation in culture and compare the conditions and phases of its development in Macedonia and France, as well create conditions for cooperation in this field. 

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Leaders of the project axe 4: Cultural policy and cultural exchange, of the Project for decentralized cooperation between the region Basse-Normandie and Macedonia are Lokomotiva- Centre for new initiatives in arts and culture from Skopje and the Regional Association for Conservation of the Image and Sound from Caen, Basse-Normandie. The activities of Cultural policy and cultural exchange axe, are dedicated to the question of sensibilization of the cultural policy, decentralization in culture, supporting the collaboration between national, local institutions and the civil sector, as well as supporting the cultural exchange and artistic mobility between Basse-Normandie and Macedonia.

The project is supported by the region Basse-Normandie, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Association of Agencies for Local Democracy.

Partners in the realization of the Conference are: French Cultural Centre in Skopje and Multimedia Centre Mala Stanica.
Media support: Pristop Clipping.