Athens, 2 October 2026 (MIA) — After the recent inscription of Mount Olympus on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Greece will also seek UNESCO World Heritage Site status for Lake Prespa together with Albania and North Macedonia, MIA’s Athens correspondent reports citing Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
According to Kathimerini, Greece launched the initiative back in 2014, when it placed the lake on its UNESCO Tentative World Heritage List, and has now revived the proposal as a joint nomination with Tirana and Skopje.
The Greek Municipality of Prespes will host a meeting next Friday of the three countries’ culture ministers to plan joint steps for the region, accompanied by EU Ambassador to North Macedonia Michalis Rokas.
The EU is stepping in to provide political backing and financial aid to fund the initial studies required for the nomination, Rokas told Kathimerini.
“He also highlighted the wider geopolitical significance of the three neighboring countries working together to protect and promote a shared natural and cultural heritage site,” Kathimerini writes.
Greece first added Lake Prespa to its UNESCO Tentative World Heritage List as a potential mixed natural and cultural heritage site in January 2014.
“The proposal cited the area’s biodiversity and wetlands, as well as its Byzantine and post-Byzantine monuments, including hermitages built into the steep shores of the lake,” Kathimerini writes.
Securing UNESCO status for the shared region is expected to boost its international reputation and protect its unique cultural and natural heritage as well as promote sustainable tourism in the three neighboring countries.
The countries, Kathimerini writes, had already agreed to cooperate on protecting the Prespa ecosystem at trilateral prime ministerial meetings in 2000 and 2009, but joint initiatives and the UNESCO proposal later lost momentum amid broader political tensions in the region.
