Historic culinary specialities and traditions from all over Romania prepared for the unique event at HCR headquarters – Brukenthal Palace

I have the distinct honor and pleasure to welcome alongside us the guests of honor from the economic and academic environment –
Distinguished guests, esteemed master chefs who have come today to Avrig from across the country, honored audience,

In previous years I have spoken to you about the Historic Cafés Route of Europe, about our mission, our vision, and our role in developing cultural tourism based on the Declaration “Cultural Routes FOR Cultural Tourism” of the Council of Europe adopted in 2019 in Sibiu – the Declaration aligns with the 2010 Lisbon Treaty of the European Commission – provisions which encourage Member States to make efforts to maintain and develop the continent as the number one tourist destination in the world.

Today I wish to make a few clarifications about the context in which the Program of Cultural Routes accredited by the Council of Europe operates – we are speaking about 49 historical-cultural themes that cross the continent from its center to the most remote regions of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.

It is important to mention that the Council of Europe, established in London on May 10, 1949, was the first European organization with the mission of mediating dialogue among the cultural and ethnic diversity of the continent in order to maintain the most important objective – also an imperative necessary for development and reconstruction – PEACE.

In this endeavor, the Council of Europe has contributed significantly through dialogue and mediation to the maintenance of peace in Europe for a period of over 70 years – (considering the crisis in Yugoslavia as a crisis based on ethnic divergences.) In the history of Europe, there has never been such a long period of peace, constructive dialogue, and development.

In conclusion, allow me to make a short analogy between the Council of Europe and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations Organization on December 10, 1948 in Paris – through which the right to peace constitutes the highest objective to be achieved.

You may probably be surprised how short the longest period of peace worldwide has been – only 4 days of absolute and uninterrupted peace across the globe have been recorded from 1948 until today – humanity seems not to have learned from the mistakes of our ancestors and great efforts must be made in order not to repeat history.