Begrüßung von Frau OKR'in Hatzinger zur Veranstaltung "Religious heritage as a resource for sustainable economic growth in rural areas"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

dear guests,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this joined event of the Representation of the Free State of Thuringia to the EU and the Representation of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) to the EU on the potential of religious heritage for regional growth. We are proud that we are for the first time an official part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.

For us, the Protestant Church in Germany, fostering the religious heritage naturally has been, still is and will continue to be an important topic as it´s central to our Christian identity. Therefore we hope that the proposal of the European Commission to declare 2018 the European Year of Cultural Heritage will be adopted and thus will help to raise the awareness for the importance of the protection of our common past as a key to our common future.

Also the 500th anniversary of Protestant Reformation being commemorated in Germany and all over Europe next year increases the interest in the topic of today which goes far beyond the churches, its members and institutions alone. In Germany the official celebrations are to start on the 31st of October with many events all through the year dedicated to Protestant Reformation - a worldwide movement whose legacy can still be felt today. Following the traces of Reformation and discovering its legacy will attract visitors from all over the world.

Considering this increased attention and tourist appeal with regards to 2017, we would like to focus today on the opportunities for regions to benefit from their religious heritage in a more sustainable and long lasting way in line with the focus of this year´s European Week of Regions and Cities on sustained and sustainable growth.

I am very happy that Dr. Winter, State Secretary for Culture and Europe in the Thuringian State Chancellery, is with us today. She is coming from one of the German states which can be called along with Saxony-Anhalt the heartland of Reformation, Thuringia.

She will illustrate the role of Protestant Reformation as a European event, as part of the regional and European heritage and as a concept for tourism.

After her intervention we will get a presentation on the INTERREG project “European Cultural Route of Reformation” as a good practice example by Mrs. Natália Garcia. Mrs. Garcia represents the lead project partner, the Thüringer Landgesellschaft. Great to have you with us today. We are proud to present the project today as our EKD department for EU-Funding here in the office was considerably involved in the development of this project from the very beginning. It´s a great project and deserves your attention. The presentation will be followed by a discussion on the role of regions and other actors moderated by Mrs. Sandra Coumans from the European Network for historic places of worship, Future for Religious Heritage. Thank you, Sandra.

Finally, as we are a side event to European Week of Regions and Cities we would like to contribute with our event to the exchange of good practice with regards to regional development and growth. In order to assess our efforts, we kindly ask you to share your impressions with us. You will find a small feedback questionnaire when you turn over the programme. Thank you for your feed-back.

I wish us all an interesting exchange and now without any further delay, I would like to ask Dr. Winter to take the floor. Thank you.