Communiqué on the 12th Meeting of the Ministers of Culture of the Visegrad Group Countries

Agreed to the final text of the Statutes of the International Visegrad Prize and decided to call for nominations to the prize. The text is attached to the present Communique. Further, the Parties will make the necessary steps with their ministries of foreign affairs.

Approved the Outlines for planning, financing and management of joint cultural presentations and approved the implementation of the Hungarian project on the Joint exhibition of the young designers living in the Visegrad Four Countries. The documents are attached to the present Communique.

Further, they encouraged the finalization of the Slovakian project on the Visegrad Library and the Polish project on The Music of the Visegrad Countries. To this end, the cultural ministers agree to the financement of one expert meeting on each project, from the joint source at disposal. Final decision on the Slovakian and the Polish project shall be brought at the next meeting of the cultural ministers.

Informed one another about their policy in the field of museum mobility and discussed the possibilities of cooperation in this field, with a special regard to the issues of state indemnity, digitization and copyright.

The ministers of culture devote attention to the specific Central European aspects of the European proceedings in these fields.

Discussed the possibilities of the Visegrad Group Countries in the long term cultural programmes of the European Union (period 2007–2013), and a number of other issues on the Agenda of the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of Culture and Audiovisual Affairs.

The Ministers of Culture of the Visegrad Group Countries will have their next meeting in Slovakia in the spring of 2005.

The Slovakian side is ready to host an expert meeting evt. in February 2005.

The International Visegrad Prize (hereinafter the "Prize") has been founded pursuant to the recommendation of the Prime Ministers of the countries of the Visegrad Group made at the Group's Summit Meeting at Esztergom on 29 June 2002.

The Prize shall be awarded to individuals and legal entities, for their outstanding activity in the previous 4 years.

The International Visegrad Prize shall be awarded in appreciation of support rendered to and the development of cultural co-operation of the countries of the Visegrad Group.

The Prize shall be awarded to individuals and legal entities.

The Prize may be awarded every year; it shall usually be awarded at the twice-yearly conference of the Ministers of Culture of the countries of the Visegrad Group. Only one Prize may be awarded every year.

The first annual meeting of the cultural ministers shall discuss the nominations, after having taken into consideration the opinion by the Council of Ambassadors to the International Visegrad Fund, the final decision shall be brought at the second annual ministerial meeting.

The Prize can be submitted upon the decision of the second annual meeting of the ministers of culture.

The Prize shall consist of a diploma, an order of merit, a badge and financial acknowledgement. The diploma shall be signed by the four ministers of culture, symbolising their joint decision, the order of merit shall bear the picture of the V4 cultural logo, whereas the financial acknowledgement and the costs covering the production and related copyrights of the order of merit the shall be provided from the International Visegrad Fund. The full cost amounts to at least 20,000 euro, burdening the annual budget of the International Visegrad Fund, in accordance with the adopted decision of the Visegrad Group Prime Ministers at their meeting on 12 May, 2004, Kroměříž

The host country will be in charge of invitation of the person or the representative of the legal entity awarded, and will cover the expenses related to the invitation.

Nominations shall be made by the Directors or the Heads of Departments in charge of the V4 issues in the Ministries of Culture of the countries of the Visegrad Group, one nomination per country, to be collected by the Director of the Department in charge of the V4 issues in the host country of the above-mentioned conference of the Ministers of Culture, two months prior to the planned date of the conference.

Nominations shall be presented in writing and shall include the name, surname, and home address of the individual or the registered office of the legal entity nominated for the Prize, and a justification supporting the nomination.

The Prize shall be finally awarded by the Minister of Culture of the host country of the conference of the Ministers of Culture of the countries of the Visegrad Group, upon consultation with his or her counterparts.

The amount of around 100,000 euro per year from each country shall be at joint disposal of the four ministers of culture from the year 2005, for financing of joint cultural activities, presentations of the culture of the member countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) for the European audience, as agreed upon by the ministers at their annual meetings.

The ministers' decision is brought on the basis of the experts' proposals, who, after having studied carefully the technical, financial and cultural-political aspects of the planned joint activity, form their opinion on the planned activity/presentation. To this end, all proposals must be at disposal for the ministerial experts at least two months prior to the ministerial meetings, in the form of a project description. (See in details in point 9)

The ministers decide upon the implementation of the joint cultural activities, appoint the person/institution/organization in charge of the coordination in their own countries, consent to the co-operating partners in the other country/countries, or, in case there need be, encourage the co-operating partners to find the most suitable local partner.

Management of payment of the costs in accordance with the approved project, will be accomplished upon the orders of the four national coordinators, in accordance with the agreed budget plan. All payments must be justified by bills referring to the financial regulations of the country where the bill is issued.

The cultural ministers evaluate and approve, on the basis of the reports made by the ministerial experts, the results of the joint activity, after implementation. Analysis of the input/output relation is an integral part of the evaluation.

The ministerial experts follow with their attention the implementation of the activities and, in case there need be, inform one another in order to overcome the problems, or advise to the ministers the discontinuation of the activity.

Any of the parties has the right to give notice of his withdrawal from the programme, at least 6 months in advance.

In cases of the hereby not regulated or otherwise not discussed questions—with special regard to the financial issues—the parties acknowledge the competence of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The project descriptions must contain the following data;

The above described outlines may be occasionally discussed at ministerial meetings