‘Heritage First’ Conference hosted in Athens by the Hellenic Presidency of the EU
The conference ‘Heritage First! Towards a common approach for a sustainable Europe’, organised by the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union, took place at the Acropolis Museum in Athens from 6-8 March. The conference aimed to stress the decisive and distinct contribution of cultural heritage to sustainable economic and social development, with a view to enhancing the potential of cultural heritage as a key resource for delivering the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy.
Androulla Vassiliou and Panos Panagiotopoulos at the conference ‘Heritage First!’ at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Photo: Courtesy of European Commission.
The Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Panos Panagiotopoulos, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni, and the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, opened the event.
The conference was attended by policy makers, researchers, representatives of Member States, international organisations and other stakeholders. Among the prominent figures were the Permanent Delegate of Greece to UNESCO, Katherina Daskalaki, the President of ICOM, Hans-Martin Hinz, and the Secretary General of Europa Nostra, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, also in representation of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3.
The first thematic session focused on the quality of cultural heritage as a lever of urban development. By contributing to the unique character and identity of a city, cultural heritage may prove to have a competitive advantage which can be capitalised in terms of business expansion, job creation and development of cultural tourism and of local cultural and creative industries. The clear and distinct economic and financial impact of cultural heritage was the subject of the second thematic session of the conference, during which questions related to public and private investment, new business models and partnerships and cultural entrepreneurship were discussed. Finally, ways of enhancing the role of cultural heritage as a factor of social inclusion, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence were examined in the third session.
