(ANSA) - PALERMO, DECEMBER 18 - The EU project Itineramed focuses on food, traditions and transnational cooperation, bringing Mediterranean nations together to create food-linked tourist routes.

Promoted by the Sicilian Local Coastal Action Group (GAC) 'Torri e Tonnare del Litorale Trapanese', it includes eight local action groups from the island, Albania, Serbia, Malta, Lebanon and Egypt. On Saturday the first phase of the project will conclude with the signing of a transnational agreement for the management of the Mediterranean 'itineraries of taste'. The regulations and objectives of the itineraries will be drawn up by the six countries under Sicily's leadership. The project was developed in 2015 as part of Expo Milano 2015's Bio-Mediterranean Cluster, which brought together 11 countries under Sicily's leadership that in June signed the first agreement in principle. In July a constitutive agreement between the 6 of the 11 countries initially involved was signed: Italy, Egypt, Serbia, Albania, Lebanon and Malta.

''Food and the territory are the distinctive elements of this project,'' technical coordinator Giampiero Cappellino said. ''In the Mediterranean basin, meals are not simply the act of nourishing oneself. They recall many aspects of social and cultural life, and this was the basis for the construction of a project that generates shared tourist flows. One of the objectives of the agreement is to provide training, technical assistance and work tools in Mediterranean countries to foster the spread of local management models for the itineraries.'' (ANSA).