Meeting between the Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, in Paris
Spain has expressed to Unesco its interest in organising and hosting the next World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, Mondiacult, to be held in 2025. At a meeting held this afternoon at Unesco's headquarters in Paris, the Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun, told the Director-General of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, that if the candidature were to be chosen, the venue suggested by Spain would be Barcelona.
Mondiacult is the leading international meeting on cultural policy. So far, it has been held twice, both times in Mexico, in 1982 and in 2022. The celebration of Mondiacult 2022 was a new milestone for the consideration of culture as a Global Public Good. The Government of Spain firmly supports this objective, as demonstrated by the Cáceres Declaration, promoted by the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU and unanimously adopted by the 27 EU ministers of culture.
Spain defends its candidacy as an international cultural reference and as one of the states with the highest sum of declarations and good practices across the three Culture Conventions (1972, 2001 and 2003). It has also fully developed, strengthened and ratified the values enshrined in these conventions. Spain currently sits on Unesco's Executive Board for the third consecutive term (2023-2027), and aspires to join the committee of the 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, of which Spain was a member from 2009 to 2013.
Spain's candidature
Last October, the then acting Minister for Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares sent a letter to the Director-General of Unesco in which the Government of Spain expressed that in presenting its candidature to organise Mondiacult 2025, Spain wishes to continue working to raise culture to the level of world recognition as a Global Public Good, also initiating the creation of the World Forum on Cultural Policies and supporting Unesco in the objective of placing culture in a pre-eminent position within public policies and international cooperation.
Non official translation