EU praises cultural heritage with awards and funding boost
The European Commission and Europa Nostra will award the winners of the 2015 EU Prizes for Cultural Heritage tonight at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, who will also be co-hosting the event, is expected to say: “Tonight we will celebrate exceptional examples of cultural heritage around Europe. This is about our common past, but also about how we can cherish its social and economic potential and improve the quality of life in our regions and cities.”
In addition, the European Commission is also announcing its commitment to increase funding for cultural heritage-related research in Horizon 2020, in order to better seize the related investment opportunities.
Commenting, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, said: “We want to increase investment in cultural heritage research and innovation to more than €100m from Horizon 2020 in the next two years.”
The decision to increase funding is supported by the report ‘Getting cultural heritage to work for Europe’, drafted by an expert group chaired by former European commissioner and MEP Philippe Busquin. The document will be formally presented to Commissioner Moedas on 19 June 2015.
