Mayor of Lutsk together with other Gediminids' Way participants signed Appeal to European Leaders
The Gediminids' Way project participating municipalities signed in Kaunas (the Republic of Lithuania) an Appeal to European Leaders calling upon them to support their initiative and favor implementation of "the first Cultural Road of Council of Europe initiative originating in Eastern Europe."
The preamble to the Appeal reads that the project aims at promoting the "common cultural and historical heritage of our nations, which was created during the Gediminids’ reign over the territory of modern Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and other Central and Eastern European countries."
Petras Vaitiekūnas, Lithuanian Ambassador to Ukraine and a member of the project's Board of Trustees, is taking the Appeal to Vilnius to deliver it to its addressees.
The project participants gathered in Kaunas for a meeting to make decisions on a number of issues, including the project's organization and future activities. They elected project leadership, approved a logo and discussed project activities in 2014.
The Association of Local Governments "The Gediminids’ Way," the project's spearhead from Ukraine, was authorized to represent all of the project participants and act on its behalf. The Association's executive director, Gennadiy Druzenko, was appointed the coordinator of the entire international project.
According to the Lutsk Mayor and the President of the Association Mykola Romaniuk, "the project unites Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian cities that want to emphasize their Europeanness. All of the project participants understand the Europeanness as not a political option but rather deep-rooted traditions of our peoples: tolerance, peaceful coexistence and respect for national traditions – in short, the unity in diversity, which is actually the formula of united Europe."
The Gediminids' Way was initiated in December 2012 by a number of Ukrainian cities, museums and cultural reserves historically associated with the cultural heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus and Samogitia and the Gediminids’ House. In May 2013, authorized representatives from Khotyn, Lutsk, Kamyanets-Podilskiy, Ostroh and Izyaslav founded the Association of Local Government "The Gediminids' Way".
As of late November 2013, The Gediminids' Way, as the international project, unites 18 cities, districts and regions in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, including ten members of the Ukrainian association. The rest participate in the project based on Memorandums of Cooperation signed with the Association.
