CULTURAL HERITAGE COUNTS FOR EUROPE

CHAPTER IV. TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE EU STRATEGY AND ACTION BENEFITTING CULTURAL HERITAGE

 “The Community shall take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures.”
Article 151.1 of the Treaty establishing the European Community
Article III – 280.4. of the Constitutional Treaty

A - GENERAL REMARKS

The above-mentioned “horizontal clause” is the key to the effective contribution by the EU Institutions and Member States to the safeguarding and enhancement of cultural heritage (immovable and movable, tangible and intangible including cultural landscapes and traditional crafts and skills). It is indeed vital that a comprehensive strategy with regard to cultural heritage be adopted by the Union and that action benefiting cultural heritage be mainstreamed into all relevant EU policy/action areas. EU direct action related to culture and cultural heritage should thus be complemented by other policy/action areas with direct or indirect impact on culture, such as education and training; action towards youth; information and communication; action promoting active (European) citizenship; environment; common agricultural policy and rural development; regulation of the internal market; taxation; trade; energy; research and development; tourism; external relations and last but not least, regional development and social cohesion through structural funds.

The EU Institutions and Member States also need to adopt incentives for private investments in restoring and maintaining heritage since a large majority of Europe’s heritage assets is, and will remain, privately owned. Many of these measures need to be promoted also at European level, including fiscal measures such as a reduced VAT rate on restoration and maintenance works on historic buildings. As historic monuments constitute a common good, legal and fiscal measures to assist private owners of historic buildings and sites should be an integral part of future sustainable EU strategy and action with regard to cultural heritage.

• Europa Nostra recommendations:
  
  The full implementation of this “horizontal clause” requires a continuous dialogue on shared objectives among the various DGs of the European Commission (with a special role for the General Secretariat of the Commission); between the various DGs of the European Commission and their counterparts in other EU Institutions; as well as between the EU Institutions and the corresponding NGOs. A horizontal cooperation between various NGO sectoral platforms is also needed. 
  
• An effective implementation of the “horizontal clause” requires a comprehensive and permanent monitoring system (including the production of periodic progress reports by the Commission on the implementation of article 151.4), with a particular role for the European Parliament and the civil society concerned.

• Special attention should be given to a careful assessment of the growing number of EU directives or regulations – many of them adopted as part of the regulation of the internal market – which might have an unintended adverse effect on cultural heritage. The Commission might consider accompanying in the future its legislative proposals with an additional “fiche” indicating the compatibility of a given Commission proposal with the provisions of article 151.4 of the Treaty.

• The EU Institutions should explore the feasibility of introducing an appropriate “cultural impact assessment” system similar to the one which currently exists in the form of an “environment impact assessment”.  

B) HERITAGE AS AN ASSET FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: SPECIAL FOCUS ON CULTURAL TOURISM

As many reports and studies show, cultural heritage (both its historic and its natural components) is capable of generating a wide range of positive economic benefits. These include benefits to individuals as a result of new job opportunities or the higher prices commanded by homes with historic features, and benefits to entire communities thanks to the regeneration of run-down historic areas. The economy also benefits directly from a vibrant and expanding tourist industry, much of which depends upon a high quality historic and natural environment to attract new visitors. (8) (9)

Tourism is one of the most important and fast growing sectors of the world economy and of the European Union. In particular Europe is the world leading tourism destination. It contributes at a rate of at least 4% to the EU GDP, accounts for more than 6 million direct jobs and for more than 2 million business most of then being small and medium-size undertakings. In addition, according to some estimates, more than 50% of tourist activity in Europe is driven by cultural heritage and cultural tourism is expected to grow the most in the tourism sector. Sustainable European tourism requires, inter alia, preservation of cultural heritage resources which are crucial for its development. This is the asset of its competitiveness in the world market. In so doing cultural tourism contributes to the safeguard and enhancement of Europe’s cultural heritage, one of the Union objectives as set out in Article I-3.3 of the European Constitution.

Furthermore, the intra–European cultural tourism constitutes an important vehicle for promoting, among the European citizens, the awareness of Europe ’s cultural dimension, of its cultural “unity in diversity”, and also for promoting the sense of European identity and sense of belonging. For all these reasons the promotion of cultural tourism is one of the primary objectives and actions for Europa Nostra.

To this aim Europa Nostra strongly supports the current action on tourism by the EU Institutions, in particular the European Commission Communication on “Basic Orientations for the sustainability of the European Tourism” (on which it has communicated comments and suggestions), the work of the Tourism Sustainability Group foreseen in that Communication and the draft Report and Motion for an EP Resolution of Mr Luis Queiro’, MEP , on “New prospects and new challenges for sustainable European tourism” presented to the EP Committee on Transport and Tourism on 1.3.2005.

Europa Nostra recommendations:  

• To promote and take advantage of the great synergy between cultural heritage and sustainable tourism for the promotion and enhancement of both.

• The European Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards constitutes an effective tool for increasing the attractiveness of cultural tourism destinations and itineraries. The competent services of the European Commission for culture and tourism respectively could start a coordinated action in this sense. Europa Nostra is ready to cooperate.

• In the framework of the work for a Label for European Tourism as a global destination, one should think to one particular Label for Cultural European Tourism.

C) EU ENLARGEMENT: OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE NEW MEMBER STATES (10)

The continuing enlargement of the EU constitutes a significant enrichment of its cultural heritage and provides a great opportunity for cultural heritage conservation and education in the new Member States. The many opportunities will be created by gradual growth of economy and standard of living, increased mobility of people within the EU, gradual development of cultural tourism, improved standards of environmental protection imposed by EU regulations, the use of EU structural funds, the return of historic monuments to former owners or acquisition of historic monuments by new private owners.

The EU and its Member States must however also become aware of the many threats to cultural heritage which will arise as a consequence of often uncontrolled urban, industrial and building developments which are currently under way. These should in no way be underestimated.

For example, the Common Agricultural Policy and the industrialisation of agriculture have already had some negative side-effects on the preservation of the countryside in the Union. This is why Europa Nostra welcomes the latest CAP reforms, and notably the decoupling of aid from production, with the aim to make agriculture sustainable and to enhance the rural environment and quality of life.

Illicit trafficking of works of art will be further “facilitated” due to the abolition of frontier controls. Stronger police and judicial co-operation between all EU Member States is therefore a must. Finally, reduced state funds for culture will lead also to substantial budget cuts for heritage conservation, or for the management and presentation of museums/sites to the public. Therefore, new sources of funding, mostly private, will need to be encouraged by adequate incentive measures to be adopted by public authorities.

All of the threats mentioned above exist also in “old” Member States. However, the situation is particularly fragile in the “new” countries as they are “countries in transition”. The economic pressure in the new Member States of the Union will indeed be particularly high and requires firm regulations for the protection of non-renewable resources such as built and natural heritage. Central and Eastern Europe should try to learn from the mistakes which Western Europe made in the 50s, 60s and 70s and seek to avoid them, not repeat them.

Europa Nostra Recommendation:

The EU Institutions and Member States have a particular responsibility to help the “new countries” to fully exploit the above-mentioned opportunities, while at the same time reducing as much as possible the negative effects of the many threats.

(8) See Heritage Counts 2004 Report, chapter 5.2. on Economic Benefits, www.heritagecounts.org.uk
(9) For an additional analysis of the economic value of cultural heritage see, among others, the recent study prepared by By Dr. T. Nypan, Directorate for Cultural Heritage, in Norway “Cultural Heritage Monuments and historic buildings as value generators in a post-industrial economy (with emphasis on exploring the role of the sector as economic driver)”
(10) For a more detailed overview of opportunities and threats to the cultural heritage conservation and education linked to the EU Enlargement see the special issue of the European Cultural Heritage Review on “Enlargement = enrichment”, Europa Nostra N.1/2004