Cultural heritage to gain from more EU support
Cultural heritage organisations should seize the opportunities of EU funding programmes and policies to help address the challenges facing the sector, according to a new report by the European Commission.
The document, entitled ‘Towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe’, states that the sector is at a “crossroads” with reduced public budgets, falling participation in traditional cultural activities and diversifying potential audiences due to urbanisation, globalisation and technological change. But it also highlights opportunities for member states and stakeholders to work more closely across borders to ensure that cultural heritage contributes more to sustainable growth and jobs.
Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: “Europe needs to maximise the intrinsic, economic and societal value of cultural heritage. It should be the centre of heritage-based innovation, seizing the opportunities created by digitisation and promoting our heritage expertise worldwide. Across the EU, we need to encourage a more people-friendly approach in heritage sites and museums, using new techniques and technologies to attract visitors and reach young people in particular. In short, we need to bring history alive. I am pleased that heritage stands to gain from stronger European support over the next seven years.”
The report calls for stronger co-operation at EU level to share ideas and best practice, which can feed into national heritage policies and governance. It also welcomes the approach set by the EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, which requires a project’s impact on cultural heritage to be considered, and the General Block Exemption Regulation which allows state aid for the sector. It encourages a similar approach to support heritage in broader policy making at EU, national and regional levels.
The Commission said cultural heritage has already benefitted from significant EU funding, including €3.2bn from the European Regional Development Fund in 2007-2013. Major conservation works at the Parthenon and Pompeii were among the schemes to receive support. EU programmes provided a further €1.2bn for rural heritage and around €100m for heritage-related research.
Cultural heritage is expected to benefit from higher EU investments between 2014-2020, for example through the European Structural and Investment Funds (with a total budget of €351bn for regional policy), Horizon 2020 (€80bn for research) and Creative Europe (€1.5bn for cultural and creative industries).
