On October 15 Georgia officially became the guest of honour country of the Frankfurter Buchmesse. The Handover ceremony is one of the most important highlights of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, when the current guest of honour finishes its own project and next one starts. Georgia has been preparing for this moment since 2014, after the agreement was signed between the Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.
 
The ceremony of the guest scroll handover was devided in to several parts: conversation of the Georgian and French authors–Davit Gabunia and Pénélope Bagieu. The next part of the ceremony was talks of Guest of Honour project Directors of Georgia and France - Ms. Medea Metreveli and Mr. Paul de Synety together with the President of Frankfurter Buchmesse Mr. Jürgen Boos and the German moderator. This part of ceremony was concluded by the official handover of the guest scroll with the Georgian quote from the poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli.
 
The sun shines alike on roses and scrub, on everything we see.
You alike to the greatest and the lowly, merciful should be.
The one, who’s getting bound, binds himself; the generous bind the free.
The sea’s waters flow in and flow out: be generous like the sea.
 
The official Handover part was followed by the screening of animation about the concept of Guest of Honour Georgia dedicated to the Georgian alphabet and incredible music performance of Katie Melua and Gori Women Choir.

From the begining 2018, the Georgian Literature and Culture will be presented in German-speaking Europe with the status of Guest of Honour of Frankfurter Buchmesse.