The European Union will be Guest of Honor at FIL 2023

This Monday, the European Union (UE) and the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL Guadalajara) signed in Brussels, Belgium, the agreement by which the international organization made up of 27 countries will be the guest of honor at the most important publishing meeting in Spanish for 2023, which will take place from November 25 to December 3 next year

In the act were Gautier Mignot, ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union in Mexico; Camilo Villarino Marzo, chief of staff of the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell; Brian Glynn, director general for the Americas of the European External Action Service; Raúl Padilla López, president of the FIL Guadalajara; Patricio Jeretic, curator of the organizing team for the presence of the European Union at FIL 2023, and Marisol Schulz Manaut, general director of FIL.

Right there, the director general for America of the European External Action Service announced that the vast and rich participation of the European Union will happen under the motto “Building a union of cultures”.

The collective presence of the nations of the old continent, said Gautier Mignot, will be “an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with Mexico, with exchanges of ideas and cultures. In the European Union We are convinced that literature forms an important part of culture, which constitutes a fundamental axis in society as a mechanism for becoming aware of the human being”.

He also stressed that the link between both parties has been strengthened in recent years with the presence in the FIL Guadalajara of European Letters Festival since 2011, as well as the recently announced award of the 2011 FIL Prize for Literature in Romance Languages ​​to the Romanian Mircea Cărtărescu.

Marisol Schulz Manaut added that “thanks to the agreement that is being crystallized today between the authorities of our institutions, in 2023 we will have not just one, but 27 guest countries of honor at the FIL Guadalajara, represented in the European Union. It will be a magnificent and unparalleled opportunity not only for the public to meet the best of European literature and culture, but also for the publishing industries of America and Europe to reaffirm their ties for the benefit of readers on both sides of the Atlantic. . Because an ocean may separate us, but we are united, without a doubt, by the immense love we profess for books and culture and the firm belief in their transforming power”.

The 27 countries that make up the European Union and that will have a presence at the great literary meeting next year are: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden.

Meanwhile, the 2022 edition of the FIL Guadalajara, to take place from November 26 to December 4, will have Sharjah and Arab culture as the Guest of Honour. The presence of the emirate was originally scheduled for the 2020 edition, but, given the well-known unfeasibility in the first year of the pandemic, the Emirati participation could be rescheduled for the current year, since there was already a contract signed with Peru to assume the distinction in 2021.

ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx