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Promoting cultural heritage in the European continent

Eugene Eteris, RSU/BC, Riga, 28.05.2018.Print version
The European Commission decided to support 29 “cultural projects” selected out of initial 77 applications to promote cultural heritage in Europe. This support is within the events conducted during the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage. Sadly enough, no projects from the Baltic States have been selected...

There is a special EU programme that supports the cultural and creative sectors called “Creative Europe” with a total budget of about €1.5 billion for 2014-2020. The program supports organisations in the fields of cultural heritage, performing arts, fine arts, interdisciplinary arts, publishing, film, TV, music, and video games as well as tens of thousands of artists, cultural and audio-visual professionals. The funding allows them to operate across Europe, to reach new audiences and to develop the skills required in the digital age.

 

The EU decided to designate 2018 as the European Year of Cultural Heritage because of its symbolic and political importance. The purpose of the European Year is to raise awareness of Europe's common history and values, and to strengthen a European identity. Thousands of initiatives and events across Europe will provide the possibility to involve citizens from all backgrounds. The aim is to reach out to the widest possible audience, in particular children and young people, local communities and people from all backgrounds. 

The slogan of the European Year of Cultural Heritage is “Our heritage, where the past meets the future”. On “Creative Europe” program see:

https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/

 

Presenting chosen “cultural projects”, Commissioner for education and culture, Tibor Navracsics, underlined that the “transnational projects would showcase and promote cultural heritage in all its different forms” as being the source of inspiration for contemporary artistic creation and helping to build bridges between people from all backgrounds.

He added that “in the spirit of the European Year of Cultural Heritage these inspiring projects would help reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space".

 

The projects chosen vary, from the production of folk costumes from different regions using traditional skills, to the exploration of the Baroque era through music. Some are long-term educational projects designed to help people learn about monuments and archaeological sites. One project will highlight European food heritage through multimedia artwork. In addition to the relevance and quality of the projects, another important selection criterion was the potential of a project to maximise the impact by ensuring it reaches as far as possible, locally, nationally and at the European level, to ensure that citizens from all over Europe can be part of the experience.

 

A total budget of €5 million is allocated to the selected 29 projects. Dominating were projects from Italy (12 submitted projects), France (9 submitted) and Belgium (9 submitted) – 4 approved projects for each of these three states; grants awarded varied from € 200 thousand to just € 60 thousand.

More in: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eacea-site/files/coop3_selection_results.pdf

 

The Commission will propose at the end of May 2018 a new programme for the 2021-27 financial period; initial Commission’s budget projection for the future “Creative Europe” programme was about €1.85 billion.

 

Cultural community in the Baltic States shall be worried that none of the projects from these countries have been approved; suffice it to say that there were only two applications for financial support from Estonia and Latvia (one from each state). Even small Serbia submitted 6 projects, of which 3 were selected for support. See:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eacea-site/files/coop3_applications_by_country.pdf

 

More information in the following websites: -Press release on the European Year of Cultural Heritage; - Q&As; - Website of the EYCH2018 campaign (including a list of events at EU and national levels); -Special Eurobarometer report on Cultural Heritage and country fiches

Spotlight publication; - Factsheet "culture as a driver for EU unity" - The Commission's Contribution to the Leaders' Working Lunch Gothenburg, 17 November 2017; - Decision (EU) 2017/864 on a European Year of Cultural Heritage.

General reference: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-3901_en.htm/Commission press release. 23.05.2018






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