Europa Nostra General Assembly 2021

The General Assembly 2021 of Europa Nostra took place online on 29 November. Some 90 Member and Associate Organisations participated in this year’s General Assembly, which was chaired by Europa Nostra’s Executive President Hermann Parzinger and Secretary General Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic.


Following the detailed presentations made by the Executive President and the Treasurer Huub Doek, the General Assembly approved the Annual Report 2020, including the Audited Annual Accounts 2020, as well as the Draft Budget 2022. Both documents had been previously endorsed by the Council of Europa Nostra.

The General Assembly also (re-)appointed 28 new members of the Council as well as the Chair of the Internal Audit Committee and the external Auditor.

The 16 new Council members nominated by Member Organisations and Country Representations for a mandate of 3 years are: Paul O’Brian (Ireland), Petr Svoboda (Czechia), Seda Grigorian (Armenia), Carlota Marijuan Rodriguez (Spain), Gaiane Casnati (Italy/Armenia), Monica Luengo (Spain), Helen Müller (Germany), Grete Horntvedt (Norway), Koenraad Van Balen (Belgium), Marianne Roald Ytterdal (Norway), Christian Hanus (Austria), Francesca Moncada (Italy), Marc Wingens (The Netherlands), Hortensia von Roten (Switzerland), Joop de Jong (The Netherlands) and Bertrand Perret (France).

The 12 Council members nominated by Individual Members for a mandate of 3 years are: Jimmy Jamar (Belgium), Sara Crofts (UK), Lydia Carras (Greece), Sofia Barroso F. de Araoz (Spain), Rossana Bettinelli (Italy), Natalia Moussienko (Ukraine), Etienne Poncelet (France), Robert Quarles van Ufford (The Netherlands), Hildebrand de Boer (The Netherlands), Maria Cristina Vannini (Italy), Muriel Joyeux (France) and Sander Winckel (Switzerland/Netherlands).

Special thanks were given to the 14 outgoing Council members, namely Isabelle de Broglie, Costa Carras, Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou, Claus-Peter Echter, Piet Jaspaert, Pierre Laconte, Michael Lehmann, Fani Mallouchou-Tufano, Laurie Neale, Paloma Sobrini, Olivier de Trazegnies, Nato Tsintsabadze, Laurence de la Vaissiere and Diego Visconti.

During the General Assembly, the Executive President Hermann Parzinger paid special tribute to Costa Carras, who joined Europa Nostra’s Council in 1973 and became Vice-President in 1976, a position that he held until 2019. Over 48 years, Costa Carras has been a consistently active member, shaping the organisation to what it is today. In 2013, at Europa Nostra’s 50th anniversary Congress in Athens, Costa Carras received a Medal of Honour, the highest distinction conferred by Europa Nostra, “for his visionary and inspiring leadership and his generous voluntary dedication, for his boundless energy and tireless efforts with which he made a unique contribution – over a period of four decades – to Europa Nostra’s mission and has enhanced its continuous growth and development.

In her personal tribute to Costa Carras, the Secretary General Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović recalled the speech that he gave on this occasion: “The gift of Greece to Europe is Europe”. She concluded her tribute to Costa by saying: “The gift of Greece to Europa Nostra is Costa Carras”.

Costa Carras thanked all members for their support and congratulated the Executive President, the Executive Vice-President Guy Clausse and the Secretary General for their outstanding leadership resulting in the continuous growth of the organisation over the years.

Following the report on the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2021 in Venice and the presentation of the Venice Call to Action: “For A New European Renaissance”, the Executive President closed the General Assembly 2021 by inviting all members to join the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2022 which will take place at the end of September 2022 in Prague, during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, thanks to the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture

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