6-9 August 2009.

Round Table in Subotica City Media Centre gathering around 30 participants, guests from the partner cities Osijek , Mostar and Seged was organized during the traditional celebration of harvest days.

On behalf of the host city Subotica, the key note speaker was Mr. Petar Horvacki, vice Mayor of Subotica,  who spoke about  multicultural coexistence and more than twenty  ethnic minority groups living in Subotica with a long tradition of mutual respect for diversity of their cultural heritage . Duzijanca or the harvest days evolved today to an urban celebration of a traditional rural habit of the local Croats and Bunjevacs – of making the bread of the newly harvested wheat.  Cultural events organized in the city streets and the main square are gradually becoming an attraction not only for the local citizens, but also for a number of visitors from the region and abroad.  In many ways,  the traditional cultural values of national minorities have become a specific attraction that Subotica can offer as an example of good practice in intercultural governance at local level and as an experience to be shared at cross-border and European wide level.

Vice Mayor of the city of Osijek  Mr. Ivan Vrdoljak,  reiterated the long tradition of cherishing good neighborly and friendly relations with the city of Subotica. Many local organizations, especially of those belonging to national minorities contribute actively to this fruitful co-operation and direct people-to-people exchange. Further efforts should be made to support the co-operation between the local governments and especially to reinforce the role of youth in city to city co-operation Programmes. There are huge potentials for improving cultural and economic links and we still need to invest more efforts to enable the conditions for making them happen. 

The city of Mostar was represented by Ms. Anita Simunovic, Head of city department for culture. She addressed the audience expressing readiness to support local initiatives for strengthening the direct links of co-operation between citizens’ groups and minority communities. To this end, local authorities in Mostar, who are probably in a peculiar situation compared with the partners involved in this action since it is a city known as the divided city that should benefit much from exchange of good practice in managing multiethnic local communities. Therefore the project activities envisaged, including this Round Table and the study visit are extremely relevant for all the members of this delegation members, but also for the future contacts we are looking forward to.   

The discussion on preservation of cultural heritage of national minorities, its role in intercultural dialogue and understanding particularly in the process of post-conflict reconciliation in the region, was the main topic of the presentations by participants many of whom visited Subotica for the first time.  Harvest days – Duzijanca – were a good opportunity for celebrating cultural diversity and initiating new links between local communities in our region.