mr president if you want to know where hell is ask the artist and if you cannot find the artist you know you are in hell
i think this quote which i found by an anonymous author in sarajevo summarises the importance of arts and culture not only for open societies but also for our relations with the rest of the world
bosnia and herzegovina with sarajevo as its capital belongs to one of the black holes on the european map and this is due to our history
now however we have to look to the future
the people of sarajevo have come close to knowing hell especially during the siege of that city and arts and culture have helped people there to survive
the orchestra rehearsed while the city was being shelled and the winter festival full of arts and culture continued
sarajevo deserves a european spring
the next generation suffers from the wounds of history and we have an important responsibility as europeans to look to the future with them and to include them in the european horizon
i fully support ms pack's initiative and i want to ask parliament to support it and to do everything we can to include sarajevo as a european cultural capital
i believe that if we all want this it absolutely can be possible because it would be very disappointing if our ideas and common sense were to be blocked by bureaucracy
