Roy Perry, MEP and Member of the European Parliament Committee
for Culture, Youth, Education & Media, spoke on the European
Parliament’s priorities for European Cultural Heritage. He focused on
the ways in which support for cultural heritage projects could be
accessed and stressed that much more could be achieved through working
together in partnership than through working alone.
The main role for the Parliament in this context, explained Roy Perry,
was in its capacity as the European Union’s budgetary Authority. It did
not decide on individual projects, rather it established the amounts of
money and set the parameters for policies and this, Roy Perry advised,
can be influenced. The European Union spent 0.4% on cultural activities
which Roy Perry felt was not enough, although he considered it
unrealistic to think that there would ever be enough money to undertake
all the cultural heritage work one might wish to. He talked about the
problem of reconciling conflicting demands, such as jobs, housing and
the research and technological development which would allow society to
move forward into the 21st Century. There would always be areas of
Europe, suggested Roy Perry, which need support to develop their basic
infrastructure.
Roy Perry advised that the key to accessing European funding for
cultural activities was firstly to develop a worthwhile project which
was of European importance and then to seek funding. To seek a funding
opportunity first then to try to develop a project which meets the
criteria in order to access funding was not the approach for successful
funding.
He spoke of project packaging and the “triggers” or key words which
would unlock the funding sources. Economic development had to be a key
objective to a funding proposal: culture, for example, promotes tourism
and improves the quality of life of an area which is itself an economic
generator. The most important objective, according to Roy Perry, was
employment and this is where cultural heritage could be very important
as it had potential for the creation of real jobs.
There were two main issues currently facing Europe, considered Roy
Perry, enlargement and the Single Currency. He said the main aim of the
European Union Institutions was to see that the applicant countries join
the Union as quickly and as practically as possible. He spoke of the
enormous demands on Central and Eastern European communities and
appealed to participants from these countries to fight, together with
Western European countries, to ensure that cultural heritage received a
significant share of the available resources.
Roy Perry recognised that there was a great deal of work still to be
done and suggested that it was good to learn from each other. He
reminded participants that although the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe could learn much from the Western European countries, they also
had a lot of experience which might benefit Western Europe.
