On Wednesday 15th of December 2021 it was held the AEuCC general assembly, in Deruta (Perugia, Italy) with the possibility to participate online.

It was recorded the presence of 26 members of the EGTC and observer cities from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, Austria, Turkey.

The mayor of Deruta, Michele Toniaccini, officially welcomed to Deruta all the participants.

AEuCC President, Xavier Morant Verdejo, welcomed the participants and thanked Toniaccini and the city of Deruta for having AEuCC’s meeting. “It is very nice” Morant stated “to meet in person after a long time.” 

President Morant expressed the hope that the assembly, and the international meeting of the following day (within the CLAY Interreg project), would be useful to know better how the pandemic has affected the ceramic sector as it is a big challenge to improve the craft and ceramic sector.

All the President of National Associations delivered a greetings speech: Patrice Jarque, President of AfCC; Giuseppe Olmeti, Secretary general and Project director of AEuCC and director of AiCC, in name of Massimo Isola, President of AiCC; Eugene Savulescu, President of ArCC; Michael Thiesen, President of AgCC; Nikola Seko, President of AczCC; Jose Luis da Silva, representing AptCVC.

The Assembly proceeded, under the coordination of General Secretaries Giuseppe Olmeti and Oriol Calvo, with the technical approvals (report of the previous assembly, final budget 2020, results and budget 2021).

The assembly then focussed on the international and European projects involving AEuCC at the present moment:

• CLAY, an ongoing Interreg Europe project with the goal of improving regional policies for innovation in the ceramic sector.
• Women and Art, an Erasmus+ project to support talented women starting their ceramic businesses.

Later on, Olmeti presented the project applications that AEuCC is working on:

• Horizon Heritage, Cluster 2. Horizon started to work with Heritage and a call was dedicated to Traditional Craft. For many months AEuCC has been talking with potential partners, in order to bring innovation to the art and craft ceramic sector.
• Interreg Central Europe, a program devoted only to this part of Europe. The project idea is to create an innovative market place, the possibility of selling online, innovative solutions developed by ceramists, market, single cities.

The assembly proceeded with a discussion about potential projects to support the national associations and their cities, then with the approval of the budget for 2022 and a discussion about the participation fees to be enlisted in the EGTC, updating them according to the cost of living of the participating countries.

Pinar Adinali, representative of the municipality of Kutahya (Turkey) stated that they have organized meetings and invited international delegates, including AEuCC members, and that thanks to these meetings it was easier for Turkey to organize their national association.

President Morant concluded by thanking everyone for their presence, hoping to have another meeting soon and to improve AEuCC activities in the future.

Michele Toniaccini, Mayor of Deruta, thanked again all the representatives of the EU countries for participating in the assembly in Deruta, stating that they have been honoured to have hosted the meeting.