Greece and France have agreed to draw up a roadmap for joint initiatives, with a focus on protecting cultural heritage, cooperation between museums, cinema and audiovisual media.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and French Ambassador Nicolas Kassianides.

Particular emphasis was placed on implementing the Cultural Cooperation Memorandum signed in May 2025, as well as on Greek-French professional seminars organised in cooperation with the French National Institute for Cultural Heritage.

The two sides also explored opportunities to expand cooperation in traditional and applied arts, drawing on their shared experience and expertise in fields such as ceramics, textiles, carpentry and silversmithing.

In the field of cinema, the importance of Greece’s participation in the new international Alliance Lumière was highlighted. The initiative aims to strengthen international cooperation on the future of cinema and moving images. The alliance’s next annual meeting will be held in Athens in 2027.

In the same context, the two sides discussed the prospect of cooperation between France’s Lumière film school and Greece’s planned State School of Cinema and Audiovisual Media.

The Minister of Culture also outlined Greece’s cultural priorities ahead of its Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2027.

Particular attention was given to protecting artists’ rights in the age of artificial intelligence, as well as addressing the effects of climate change on cultural heritage.

The meeting also examined the possibility of organising an exhibition dedicated to the correspondence between Greek scholar Yannis Psycharis and French writer Émile Zola. The letters are held by the National Library of France and the Library of the Hellenic Parliament. The exhibition would aim to highlight an important record of the intellectual and cultural ties between the two countries.

Mendoni thanked the French Embassy and the French Institute of Greece for their close and constructive cooperation with the Ministry of Culture.

Through the French ambassador, she also invited her French counterpart, Catherine Pégard, to visit Athens, with a view to further strengthening cultural cooperation between Greece and France.