The European Heritage Partnerships Workshop brought together
practitioners from both governmental and non-governmental organisations
which share similar objectives on heritage conservation and access
throughout the European Union and the wider Europe. The Workshop, which
took place in London on 21 and 22 May 1998, was co-ordinated by the
National Trust in the framework of the European Exchange Programme. The
European Exchange Programme promoted an exchange of experience between
heritage conservation organisations. It provided an opportunity for
practitioners to form partnerships and to bring their experience to task
based projects covering a wide range of themes and to exchange
experience and expertise with others.
The objective of the Workshop was to develop the practical work of the
European Network of National Heritage Organisations (ENNHO), to allow
members of ENNHO to discuss ways of taking the network forward and to
determine a strategy for doing so. Set up following the “Conservation
and Co-operation in Europe – Heritage Priorities and Partnerships”
Conference/Workshop (Brussels, 1996), ENNHO is a loose network of
national heritage organisations which aims to:
- pool shared expertise and experience and act as an extra research resource for heritage conservation organisations;
- make joint applications with other network partners to attract European funding;
- make representation to the European Union Institutions and Council of Europe on issues of common concern.
The Workshop provided the participants of the European Exchange
Programme with an opportunity to present the findings of the individual
task-based projects they had completed during the Exchange visit to the
rest of the participants. Following two Keynote Plenary Sessions which
covered European Union (EU) environmental and cultural policy, delegates
also discussed in Syndicate Groups some of the key EU policy issues
which impact on the environment and cultural heritage, such as Agenda
2000 and the Cultural Framework Programme.
The Workshop concluded with further discussions which led member
organisations to agree a strategy for the way forward for ENNHO,
including the future structure of ENNHO and the establishment of new
pan-European partnerships in ad-hoc working groups to work on heritage
conservation projects. As a result of the meeting, the membership of
ENNHO was widened through the inclusion of many new partners
participating in the Workshop.
Structure
Exchange participants presented the conclusions of their task-based
projects on the first day, ranging across a wide variety of heritage
conservation issues, such as the management of historic estates and
gardens and coastal management. On the second day, Plenary Sessions
focused on current EU policy and funding issues, with presentations on
EU environmental and cultural policy by a European Commission Cabinet
Member and a Member of the European Parliament respectively. The
delegates divided into Syndicate Groups for in-depth discussions on
specific topics, including: Agenda 2000, Land-use and Spatial Planning,
European Cultural Landscapes, opportunities for research and
technological development and the Cultural Framework Programme.
Participants
The Workshop brought together, not only the participants of the Exchange
Programme, but others from organisations including English Heritage,
ICOMOS and the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
38 organisations took part in the European Exchange Programme in May
1998. Participants were practitioners, experts in their field and about
mid-way in their career. They included architects, archaeologists,
scientists, property managers, curators, wardens and specialists in
areas such as education, training, coastal management, historic gardens,
upland farm management, heritage retailing and commercial activities.
They came from 26 countries throughout Western, Central and Eastern
Europe to spend nine days working on specific task-orientated projects
at properties around the UK, to contribute their experience and to learn
from each other. Each practitioner was matched to a specific project
according to their individual skills in order to maximise the benefit to
all participants. A requirement of the Programme was that participants
were able to disseminate the findings of the Exchange widely in their
home countries and beyond.
High level speakers from the European Commission and European
Parliament, from the UK Government’s Department of Environment,
Transport and the Regions (DETR), and from ICOMOS, Austria, gave
presentations during the Plenary Sessions or led the discussions in the
Syndicate Groups.
Sir David Williamson, Honorary European Adviser to the National
Trust and former Secretary-General of the European Commission, chaired
the session in the context of ENNHO. Laurs Norlund, Chef de
Cabinet for the European Commissioner for Environment Policy (Mrs Ritt
Bjerregaard) gave a presentation on European Environmental Policy and Roy Perry,
MEP and Chair of the European Parliament’s Culture Committee gave a
presentation on European Cultural Heritage Policy. The Plenary Session
concluded with a presentation on the ENNHO Website (currently under
development) and demonstrated by Rob Noble, from the Website provider, Transaxion.
From the European Commission, Ronnie Hall, DG XVI, led the discussion on Agenda 2000, Roderick Hurst,
DG XII, led the discussion on opportunities for research and
technological development, and the Cultural Framework Programme
discussion was led by Theo Mastrominas, DG X. Christabel Meyers, DETR, led the discussion on Land-use and Spatial Planning, and the European Cultural Landscapes discussion was led by Hans Peter Jeschke, ICOMOS, Austria.
Funding Organisations
The European Heritage Partnerships Workshop was supported by the
European Commission, the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media
and Sport, the British Council and ICOMOS UK.
