New exhibition at White Tower

[Ellinas]

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Friday inaugurated a permanent exhibition on the history of Thessaloniki at the northern Greek city's landmark monument, the seafront White Tower.

"The government's goal is for culture to become a catalyst for quality in the daily life of all citizens," Liapis said as he opened the exhibition, which uses digital technology to explore the city's past, and listed culture-related projects being funded by the ministry in northern Greece.

He stressed that more than 200 million euros had also been secured from the EU for such projects in Macedonia and Thrace provinces under the National Strategic Reference Framework.

The minister also noted that the culture ministry's so-called 'special' account would be scrapped under the new budget for 2009 and all spending would be given separate codes, so that everyone would know what means were at their disposal in plenty of time and be able to responsibly plan their activities within a set budget that would not be overrun.

Liapis underlined, meanwhile, that all bodies involved in the area of arts and culture would be judged based on their performance and funding would be given to those that produced a true body of work and put taxpayers' money to good use.

On Friday afternoon, Liapis will carry out a visit to the archaeological site in Vergina and Aegae in order to be briefed by the head of the university excavation team, Dr. Chryssoula Palideli, about significant new finds the historic ancient Macedonian dynasty sites.

ANA