The Plenary Hall of the Consell Insular de Menorca (Maó) will host the 89th meeting of the Historical Heritage Council on November 11 and 12. Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the council will count with the participation of representatives from all the autonomous Spanish communities. At this meeting (postponed last year due to the COVID 19 health crisis) Menorca's candidacy for UNESCO World Heritage in 2022 will be reviwed and the national projects that must start the process for their inclusion on that list will be evaluated.
The vice-president and conseller of Cultural Affairs of the Consell Insular de Menorca, Miquel Àngel Maria, thanked the Ministry of Culture and Sports for this gesture: “The Council meeting held online last year in November should have been celebrated in Menorca, but wasn’t because of the pandemic. It was at that online meeting that the Talayotic Menorca candidacy was chosen to represent Spain in front of the UNESCO Heritage Committee in 2022. Now, the celebration of the Heritage Council in Menorca is a clear sign of support for Menorca’s candidacy from the Spanish Government.” The Council's program includes a visit to the Museu de Menorca, which houses an important collection of unique pieces from Talayotic culture.
This same month, on November 26, Talayotic Menorca will live another milestone in Paris. A Menorcan delegation led by Conseller Miquel Àngel Maria will defend the candidacy in front of the international ICOMOS panel of experts in charge of evaluating the candidatures that are presented to UNESCO in 2022. The whole process will end in July 2022, when the World Heritage Committee takes its final decision about whether to inscribe Talayotic Menorca on the World Heritage List.
The Historical Heritage Council
Spain is one of the 193 states that, to date, have ratified the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention. As such, one of its missions is to propose new properties from its territory to be inscribed on the World Heritage List. The Historical Heritage Council is the body in charge of making this selection at the state level, after receiving the different proposals from the autonomous communities.