The Senate's committee on culture and media on Tuesday organized, at the Madrigal Galleries of the Palace of Parliament, an event of cultural diplomacy, collective memory and identity affirmation, entitled 'From the Flower Bridge to the Press Museum - Pages of History,' in marking 35 years since the respective emotional moment [of the 'flower bridge' between Romania and the Republic of Moldova - editor's note].

The event was organized in partnership with the National News Agency - AGERPRES and the State Information Agency of the Republic of Moldova - MOLDPRES.

'This solemn event is a tribute to a defining moment in the history of Romanian-Moldovan relations - the Flower Bridge - and opens, at the same time, a modern perspective on a national-scale initiative: the establishment of the Press Museum, a legislative project initiated under the aegis of the committee on culture and media. (...) In Chisinau, we signed a memorandum to support national theatres and collaboration in the field of theatre. Now we are continuing this archive of MOLDPRES and AGERPRES, a common archive of documents, a common archive of materials, which will remind us of the most important moments that the two states have gone through,' stated the chairman of the committee on culture and media of the Senate, Cristian Niculescu-Tagarlas.

During the event, the legislative proposal to modify the Law on the organization and functioning of the National News Agency AGERPRES was also presented, which gives the institution the right to establish, manage and finance a Press Museum. The project was adopted by the Senate on March 31 and is currently pending the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making legislative forum in this case.

'It is a project that basically marks the beginning of a piece of history through which we immortalize from an institutional point of view an enormous archive, an extremely relevant and important archive, a press archive. If you think about it, the press always reveals the most important elements of everyday life,' explained Tagarlas.

A joint declaration of cooperation regarding the creation of the Romania - Republic of Moldova Visual Archive was signed, during this event, by the chairman of the committee on culture and media of the Senate of the Parliament of Romania, Cristian Niculescu-Tagarlas, and the chairwoman of the committee on culture of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei, respectively.

'We signed a joint declaration between the two committees and basically we are the representatives of the two Parliaments, we commit to continue the cultural activity and the protection of common values, on both sides of the Prut River. In these tumultuous moments, we are experiencing very complicated moments and it is important to keep the balance. Balance means stability, democracy, it means having trust in Romania and the Romanians and always seeing the optimistic side of things, no matter how they evolve,' Tagarlas pointed out.

The photographic exhibition created by AGERPRES, presented at the Madrigal Galleries of the Senate, evokes the symbolism of the Flower Bridge, with 30 panels capturing moments from May 6, 35 years ago.

Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei highlighted that some of her colleagues are in the Romanian Parliament for the first time and that the photographic exhibition can also be found 'in the mirror' in the lobby of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.

AGERPRES director general, Claudia Nicolae, emphasised that the photographs selected for the exhibition reveal that what was an ideal 35 years ago, today we consider 'normality.'

'Tonight we are not talking about memories, about bridges, but about values, principles and, why not, projections of the future. I invite you to look at what was an ideal 35 years ago, and today we consider normality. In the 30 images on display, you see children, women from both banks of the Prut, hugging and kissing, the Patriarch of Romania sanctifying the water of the Prut and the memories of another past - children looking from behind barbed wire. This is what I thought about when I designed the project of the Romanian Press Museum together with the president of the Senate's culture committee, a preservation of the past, but, at the same time, a projection into the future of the work as we should remember it and carry it forward,' Claudia Nicolae showed.

She confessed that she has already started working on the Press Museum. At the same time, she mentioned that the first newspaper in Bessarabia, written in Romanian, was called 'Basarabia,' with Latin letters, and the text in Romanian with Cyrillic letters. The newspaper had 79 appearances, between 1906 and 1907. 'It can be a starting point of the information bridge,' pointed out the director general of AGERPRES.

The evening, which started with the singing of the state anthems of Romania and the Republic of Moldova performed by the 'Tronos' Psaltic Group of the Patriarchal Cathedral, led by Protopsaltis Mihail Buca, and the 'Doina' Academic Choral Chapel of the National Philharmonic of the Republic of Moldova, conductor Ilona Stepan, was completed by recitals given by the two choral groups.

The event was also attended by the representative of the Romanian Patriarchate, the patriarchal counselor Father Nicolae, the director of the Basilica News Agency. Also present were the Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova, Victor Chirila, the Ambassador of Italy, Alfredo Maria Durante Mangoni, the Ambassador of Albania, Enkeleda Merkuri, the President of the National Union of Bars of Romania, Traian Briciu, members of the Romanian Parliament and the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. AGERPRES (RO - writting by: Livia Popescu, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)