Dear Mario, and subsequent contributors to this discussion,

There are many different and often overlapping regional groupings around
the worlds, not least in Europe and adjacent areas.

The European Union has a very effective Mediterranean Heritage programme,
but this itself overlaps with its ROSTE programme for south-eastern Europe
excluding Greece, Turkey and Cyprus - i.e. mainly the Balkan states),
which is run out of the EU's Venice office.  (I'm on the advisory boards
for both.)

An ICOM Mediterranean would also overlap with ICOM Arab, which broadly
covers MENA Region (= Middle East and North Africa) of the United Nations
and the World Bank.  However, ICOM Arab in turn overlaps with both
ICOM-ASPAC and AFRICOM!  There have also been debates for many years about
the exact limits of ICOM-ASPAC, since both Russia and the USA are very
obviously Pacific countries - as at today's summit in Sydney.

Perhaps the biggest question mark - and main debate - ought be over the
idea of ICOM Europe?  Is it realistic to have a Regional Organisation (now
"Alliance")  which aims to cover the interests of almost three-quarters of
all current ICOM members, or should there be a move towards some rational
subdivision of Europe on geographical (or perhaps even on cultural or
language) lines?



Patrick Boylan

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the
archives at:  http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html