Notre Dame Tragedy May Help Europe Unite, Trigger Massive Fundraising - Europa Nostra

The grievous cultural loss that all Europeans are suffering over the devastating fire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris may play a positive role in uniting Europeans and is likely to trigger an unprecedented fundraising campaign at all levels, the secretary general of pan-European cultural heritage organization Europa Nostra told Sputnik

GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2019) The grievous cultural loss that all Europeans are suffering over the devastating fire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris may play a positive role in uniting Europeans and is likely to trigger an unprecedented fundraising campaign at all levels, the secretary general of pan-European cultural heritage organization Europa Nostra told Sputnik.

A massive fire broke out at the iconic cathedral on Monday evening, causing the collapse of the Notre Dame spire and the two-thirds of the roof. The blaze was fully extinguished only on Tuesday morning.

"Hopefully through this terrible loss there will be a large mobilization for cultural heritage in Europe, something that connects us, that has a positive cohesive force, and not something that divides us. We are very much aware of how much deplorable divisive politics we still have in Europe," Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic said.

She clarified that the action of solidarity that the reconstruction of Notre Dame would trigger was likely to send "a positive message on how much Europeans are connected and ought to build their future together.

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Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic noted that several billionaires, including in France and the United States, had already pledged large amounts of money for rebuilding the iconic cathedral.

"So, I think it will be probably be an unprecedented mobilization [of funds], from simple people who will be donating one euro to billionaires who will be giving hundreds of millions of euros; and of course, European organizations. I expect that the European Union is going to announce very soon a special financial contribution helping France in coping with this European cultural tragedy," she said.

According to the Europa Nostra secretary general, the Notre Dame tragedy has shown how fragile our cultural heritage is and how much people feel concerned when they lose it.