HELBI

Good news from the municipality of Nymphaio in Florina. It has been invited by the Culture Ministry, as a model of low-impact development highlighting cultural heritage and the natural environment, to represent Greece at a Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation meeting of nine states at Syracuse, Sicily, October 1-3. The ministry asked Nymphaio to participate in the workshop, because, as the invitation states: “We deem the Nymphaio community to be an exceptional example of how to preserve and highlight an area’s natural resources for sustainable development.” Nymphaio’s community president, journalist Nikos Mertzos, will present to a workshop the ideas and the method behind the regeneration of the abandoned traditional settlement, which has been listed for preservation. The workshop will tackle the development of economic and productive activities related to culture. Nymphaio has made rapid economic, social and architectural development through a combination of low-impact tourism, cultural heritage, unspoilt nature and EU programs. In 2000, it won an EU award for a regenerated village. Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation includes EU members Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Malta, and the Mediterranean states of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Morocco and Algeria. The easiest way to convince them of Nymphaio’s achievement would be to invite them to visit. What does the Culture Ministry have to say?