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The Federation of European Publishers and Ukrainian Book Institute to launch Tales of EUkraine at Bologna
The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) and the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI) have announced they will present at Bologna Children’s Book Fair their project Tales of EUkraine (TEUk).
The project has been funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission and aims to print and distribute bilingual editions of children’s books to Ukrainian children displaced in several European countries. It will launch on 6th March 2023 at the BBPlus Theatre.
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 will be able to 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 the books’ distribution, the FEP and UBI say.
Tales of EUkraine will run for three years, until October 2025. Publishers’ associations already partners in the project are: the Italian Publishers’ Association; the Polish Chamber of Books; the German Publishers and Booksellers Association; the Romanian Publishers’ Association; the Bulgarian Book Association, and the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Slovak Republic. The inclusion of further publishers’ associations is already planned and “will depend on the evolution of the Ukrainian conflict and migration dynamics".
Ricardo Franco Levi, president of the Federation of European Publishers and of the Italian Publishers Association, said: “Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 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 the book sector’s 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.” More information can be found here.
