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EUROPEAN HERITAGE LABEL TO BE ESTABLISHED AS AN EU INITIATIVE
mar 11
The European Commission is proposing that the European Heritage Label be established as an EU wide initiative. Androulla Vassiliou, the new European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, announced in her press conference in Strasbourg on 9 March 2010. This important proposal is now submitted to the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for their approval, and could come into effect in 2011 or 2012. The purpose of the European Heritage Label is to highlight sites that symbolise European integration, ideals, and history.
The Commission is proposing to expand the initial intergovernmental project lauched in 2006 and involving 17 Member States to all 27 EU Members State and to add more sites to an already existing list of the initial 64 places carrying the "European Heritage Label". These currently include the house of the late French statesman Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the EU, the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland, the Acropolis in Athens, the fortifications of Nicosia, the Museum of Genocide Victims in Lithuania, and many more places of symbolic significance.
The Commission is also proposing to set up a panel of independent experts who will assess entries submitted by each Member State and choose up to one site per year in each country. Participation of Member States will be voluntary. The proposed EU's European Heritage Label will differ from other initiatives such as the UNESCO's World Heritage List, because it will focus on sites that have played a key role in European history rather than being based on beauty or architectural quality. This Scheme will also have an important educational dimension for young Europeans and for the building of their sense of European citizenship.
Europa Nostra took active part in the consultation process organised by the European Commission in the course of 2009 with regard to the European Heritage Label initiative. Europa Nostra will now carefully examine the proposal made public by the European Commission and will communicate its possible comments to all EU Institutions concerned, namely the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Minister.
Links
European Commission Press release
Press conference by Commissioner Vassiliou
European Commission Culture website
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