News

“NIEDERRHEIN CHARTA” ADOPTED IN THE GERMAN LOWER RHINE REGION

nov 16

The “Niederrhein Charta”, a sort of regional version of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) for the Niederrhein area (the German lowlands on either side of the river Rhine between Cologne and the Dutch border) was presented in Xanten (DE) on 11 November 2009. It was prepared as the final declaration of a 3-day conference on "Der Niederrhein, Natur- und Kulturerbe" (The Lower Rhine Region, Natural and Cultural Heritage), organised by our member organization Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalschutz und Landschaftspflege. Approximately 130 heritage people took part in this conference. (see the Rheinische Post report in German here)

The declaration was presented to Minister Lienenkaemper of the government of Northrhine-Westphalia, to Mr. Cornielje, Commissioner of the Gelderland Province, and to Alexander Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, President of Europa Nostra Deutschland and Vice-President of Europa Nostra. In the latter’s speech, Europa Nostra was introduced as the Voice for cultural heritage in Europe, networking important and highly qualified member organisations and individual members from all over Europe, organising the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards, and fulfilling its important role as primary NGO advisor on heritage matters to Brussels and to the Council of Europe (CoE). In his speech, Alexander Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn cited several paragraphs of the preamble of the CoE’s ELC, thus showing its influence in the creation of the Niederrhein Charta. As well, he quoted from former EN Executive President Otto von der Gablentz's 2005 speech in Cologne which describes EN input to the 2005 CoE Convention on the Value of Heritage for Society. The European character of the Niederrhein Charta, which asks for a close cooperation with the neighboring Netherlands provinces, was highlighted and it was hoped that the "power of example" would be used regarding further such actions in other parts of our continent.