Prague, Dec 13 (CTK) – The Czech-German Fund for the Future (CNFB) is to spend 21 million crowns on more than 100 projects which will support both countries’ relations, the fund said in its press release out on Wednesday.
The selected projects are planned on both sides of the Czech-German border. Approximately eight million crowns are allocated to the restoration of heritage sites.
Restoration of St Nicholas Church in Sitbor village, west Bohemia, is among the selected projects.
“Not only is it one of the oldest sacral buildings in the region, but it has symbolised, at the same time, the common history of the Czechs and Germans,” the fund said.
The site, which is in a state of dilapidation, is being repaired by both the local inhabitants and German compatriots. The CNFB will contribute 600,000 crowns to its restoration.
The restoration of damaged or erosion-threatened tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Horazdovice, south Bohemia, is another project, which the fund will support with 300,000 crowns.
It will also fund by 80,000 crowns the meetings of Czech and German volunteers focused on heritage site restoration.
The CNFB was established on the basis of the Czech-German Declaration, signed 20 years ago. It is devised to sponsor cultural exchange and civic dialogue between Czechs and Germans.
In the past years, the Fund supported 9,500 projects on both sides of the border, having distributed over 54 million euros on them.
It also provided billions of crowns for the compensation of World War II concentration camps’ inmates and victims of forced and slave labour. This year, the functioning of the CNFB was prolonged by another ten years.
The fund’s managing board also appointed its secretariat directors at its December meeting. The Czech side will continue to be represented by current director Tomas Jelinek, while Petra Ernstberger, the current managing board’s chairwoman, will represent the German side, replacing Joachim Bruss in the new term.
