Following the submission of Places of Peace Route application dossier for Cultural Route of the Council of Europe on 30 July, the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes (EPA) informed the Borad of ENPP and the management of the Route that the documentation submitted complies with the criteria established by the Council of Europe and is therefore in a position to move on to the second phase of the evaluation process.

For this second phase, the EPA Secretariat on Cultural Routes, based in Luxembourg, has already appointed an independent expert who will be in charge of carrying out the documentary analysis of the application and its compliance with the certification criteria defined by the Council of Europe.

This year, due to the mobility constraints caused by the COVID19 pandemic, the usual field visits to Route sites will be replaced by online interviews with the Mangement of the  Route and its members.

This first result reflects the commitment of all Route members, from Portugal to Turkey, to achieve this year what they consider to be widely deserved:  the certification of Places of Peace Route as a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, whether for the theme that is underlying – Peace – either by the positive and comprehensive way it is assumed by the Route.