As a state party to the Convention since 2006 and a participant in international meetings and mechanisms (sessions of the IGC and GA, expert groups, regional meetings, submission of nominations and inscriptions on the RL), Romania has already proven its interest in the workings of the Convention. This workshop comes as a step forward in enhancing the implementation of the Convention in more concrete and substantial terms, primarily as regards the issues of community participation, elaboration of safeguarding activities, bottom-up inventorying, roles of different types of stakeholders and the coordination between them.
Despite quite frequent political changes and the understaffed relevant sections in the Ministry of Culture, one can recognize the intention of tracing a coherent national policy concerning the safeguarding of ICH. The above mentioned legal framework contributes toward this direction. The National Inventory and Registry, as two complementary instruments of identification of the ICH, have been elaborated by experts in the field of ethnology and folklore studies, cooperating closely with the officials from the Ministry of Culture, as well as with representatives of communities concerned.
The planned and carried out CB workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at national level proved to be useful. Its objectives touched the core national needs, especially in terms of comprehension of key concepts of the Convention and their clarification through concrete case studies that were thoroughly discussed.