European Publishers’ Associations and the
Ukrainian Book Institute
launch Tales of EUkraine in Bologna
The project will provide bilingual books
for Ukrainian refugee children in Europe
Brussels,
24 February 2023
The Federation
of European Publishers (FEP) and the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI) will
present for the first time the project Tales of EUkraine (TEUk) during
the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, on 6 March 2023 at 3 pm at the BBPlus Theatre.
TEUk is a
project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European
Commission, which aims to print and distribute bilingual editions of children's
books to Ukrainian children displaced in several European countries. It is an
opportunity for European publishers to support their Ukrainian counterparts and
to display their solidarity to the most vulnerable victims of the conflict by
doing what they do best: publishing books.
Ricardo
Franco Levi, President
of the Federation of European Publishers and of the Italian Publishers
Association, declared: “Since the beginning of the Russian aggression of
Ukraine, European publishers have been showing solidarity toward their
Ukrainian colleagues. We are grateful to the European Commission for
recognising the value of Tales of EUkraine. Thanks to TEUk, European publishers
will be able to continue helping Ukrainian refugees and at the same time
support recovery in Ukraine.”
Sonia Draga,
Vice-President of the Federation of European Publishers and President of the
Polish Chamber of Books, stressed the cultural relevance of the project: “TEUk shows the solidarity of European publishers with Ukraine’s
fight for democracy and freedom of speech. Books can preserve Ukrainian culture
and freedom from the blows of Russian propaganda, and Tales of EUkraine will help
hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children to keep a connection with their
homeland while integrating in their host countries.”
TEUk will
produce a rights catalogue of more than 100 Ukrainian children’s books available
for purchase in different European territories. With the support of their
national associations, publishers can acquire the rights for the books and publish
them. Their national publishers’ associations will then acquire a substantial
part of the printed copies with the contribution of the Creative Europe funding
and will supervise their distribution, which will rely on a network of NGOs,
public institutions, and other entities.
Tales of
EUkraine will run for three years, until October 2025. Publishers’ associations
partners in the project are: the Italian Publishers’ Association – AIE,
the Polish Chamber of Books – PIK, the German Publishers and
Booksellers Association – BOEV, the Romanian Publishers’ Association
– AER, the Bulgarian Publishers’ Association – ABK, and the Slovak
Chamber of Books – ZVKS. More associations will be involved in the course
of the project.
All the updates
on the project’s development will be available on TEUk’s blog and social
media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram.
Inquiries should be directed at info@fep-fee.eu.
download this press release here