Europa Nostra welcomes and contributes to the 10 European initiatives of EYCH 2018
The European Commission, in collaboration with key partners, is running long-term projects around 10 themes, called the 10 European Initiatives, so as to build a lasting legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) 2018. These initiatives are structured around 4 principles: Engagement, Sustainability, Protection and Innovation. Europa Nostra is one of the key civil society organisations actively contributing to a vast majority of these initiatives.
In addition to Europa Nostra’ specific involvement in the 10 initiatives mentioned below, Europa Nostra is running many other activities for the European Year and had, in particular, co-organised the first-ever European Cultural Heritage Summit in Berlin in June 2018, which was the largest European event of the Year.
1. Shared heritage: Sharing heritage, history and values, to bring Europeans closer together
Europa Nostra organised a special edition of the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards on the occasion of the EYCH 2018. Particular emphasis was given to the European added value of the selected heritage achievements. The 29 winners were celebrated at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony 2018 on 22 June in Berlin, which was held during the first ever European Cultural Heritage Summit. Local award ceremonies are taking place throughout the second half of 2018 in the countries of the winning projects (see calendar).
One of the most inspiring projects of Europa Nostra created for the EYCH is the #Ode2Challenge launched by Europa Nostra’s President Maestro Plácido Domingo. It is running until 9 May 2019 (Europe Day) and contributions are highly welcome.
In addition, Europa Nostra contributed with relevant data to the interactive map-based interface for cultural heritage that was developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) which was briefly presented at the European Cultural Heritage Summit.
Read more about Initiative 1 here
2. Heritage at school: Children discovering Europe’s most precious treasures and traditions
Europa Nostra contributed to the activities organised by other stakeholders for the initiative ‘Heritage at school’. Europa Nostra participated in the youth event ‘Your Europe, Your Say!’ dedicated to cultural heritage that was organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels in March 2018 and will also contribute to the eTwinning conference in October 2018 in Warsaw.
Read more about Initiative 2 here
3. Youth for heritage: Young people bringing new life to heritage
Read more about this initiative and the organisations involved here
4. Heritage in transition: Re-imagining industrial, religious and military spaces for the regeneration of urban and rural areas
Europa Nostra contributed to the workshop on adaptive re-use co-organised with the European Commission during the European Cultural Heritage Summit.
Besides, Europa Nostra attended, as an observer, one of the key events of the European Heritage Heads Forum 2018 on ‘Old sites and new functions – sharing our built heritage with the next generation’ held in Luxembourg on 16-18 May 2018.
Moreover, Europa Nostra will also contribute to the Biennial Conference ‘Religious Heritage – Europe’s Legacy for the Future’ organised by Future for Religious Heritage – a member of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3 – on 11-13 October in Paris.
Read more about Initiative 4 here
5. Tourism and heritage: Promoting sustainable cultural tourism
Europa is actively involved in the major component of this initiative, namely towards policy recommendations on sustainable cultural tourism, together with three members of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3: European Travel Commission (ETC), European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN) and Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism (NECSTouR).
Europa Nostra contributed to the Barcelona Declaration, which was presented at the NECSTouR workshop on ‘Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit’ on 19 April.
With the support of Europa Nostra, ETC organised an interactive workshop on this topic on 21 June during the European Cultural Heritage Summit, to which NECSTouR also contributed.
In partnership with Europa Nostra and ETC, ECTN is organising a special Awards edition on ‘Cultural Heritage as an Asset for Responsible and Sustainable Tourism’. The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony that will take place during the 11th International Conference for Cultural Tourism on ‘Cultural Heritage as an Asset for Responsible and Sustainable Tourism’, organised by ECTN on 25-27 October in Pafos, Cyprus.
Read more about Initiative 5 here
6. Cherishing heritage: Developing quality standards for intervention on cultural heritage
Europa Nostra stands ready to feed into the discussion on quality standards for heritage interventions. This was also discussed during the workshop on adaptive re-use organised during the European Cultural Heritage Summit.
Read more about the Initiative 6 here
7. Heritage at risk: Fighting against illicit trade in cultural goods and managing risks in heritage sites
On the occasion of the 5th Anniversary Conference of the 7 Most Endangered Programme, Europa Nostra is organising capacity-building days on endangered heritage in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 22-24 October 2018. Read more about this initiative and the organisations involved here
8. Heritage-relate skills: Enhancing education and training for the traditional and new professions
Europa Nostra was a selected member of the stakeholder group on heritage skills and knowledge transfer and contributed to the final report on ‘Skills for Heritage’. This report will also feed into the discussion of expert groups on heritage professions and, ultimately, into their policy recommendations.
Read more about Initiative 8 here
9. All for heritage: Citizen participation and social innovation
This initiative draws on the work of an expert group on participatory governance of cultural heritage to which Europa Nostra contributed (report published in early 2018).
Another related source of knowledge on this topic is the publication ‘Heritage is Ours – Citizens Participating in Decision Making’ produced by Europa Nostra Finland. It showcases inspiring practices and cases related to heritage participation. In these examples citizens have succeeded in having a lasting influence on decision-making processes that affect cultural heritage. Read more about initiative 9 here
10. Science for heritage: Research, innovation, science and technology for the benefit of heritage
Under the research funding programme Horizon 2020, the European Commission allocated EUR 3 million to support the creation of an international network to promote cultural heritage innovation and diplomacy so as to build a genuine community of innovators in cultural heritage. Europa Nostra is one of the consortium partners of the project ILUCIDARE – International network for Leveraging sUccessful Cultural heritage-led Innovations and Diplomacy through capacity building and awaREness raising that passed the competitive application process and which is coordinated by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. The project will start in November 2018.
Europa Nostra also attended the High Level Conference on Innovation and Cultural Heritage organised by the European Commission on 20 March in Brussels.
Read more about the Initiative 10 here
Besides these 10 initiatives, there is also the international dimension of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.
