Sustainability in Cultural Heritage

Europe’s cultural heritage is both a rich and diverse treasure of the past as well as a legacy for the future. Cultural heritage relates to social cohesion, identities of citizens and communities, dialogue, civic engagement and collective empowerment. Furthermore, it contributes to urban, regional and national development processes across the EU. Cultural heritage, understood as providing an intrinsic, instrumental, and social value needs to be safeguarded and preserved, but also promoted and granted access to.

The Council Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022 recognises sustainability in cultural heritage as one of its priorities, understood as both the manifestation of cultural diversity passed down from previous generations and a resource for sustainable cultural, social, environmental and economic development in Europe. The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a dramatic impact on the cultural heritage sector, which in turn has further highlighted the need to strengthen the sector’s sustainability and resilience.

EENC contribution to date

Support to the Open Method of Coordination Working Group of Member States’ experts on “Cultural Heritage Resilience for Climate Change”

The EENC supports the Open Method of Coordination Working Group of Member States’ experts focusing on “adaptation to climate change” with a target output of “… awareness-raising and capacity-building of national heritage experts on sustainability of cultural heritage”. The title of the group’s mandate is “Strengthening Cultural Heritage Resilience for Climate Change”. The group of experts actively works on identifying and exchanging good practices and innovative measures for safeguarding cultural heritage in relation to climate change. The group also examines the contribution cultural heritage can make to mitigating and combating climate change in line with the European Green Deal’s goals. The EENC has contributed to the work of this OMC Group since 2021. The final report and its ten recommendations on how to better protect cultural heritage from the impact of climate change is available here.

The EENC has also contributed to the following:

Report on "Workshop for Complementary Funding for Cultural Heritage"
Access to financial resources is an essential part of a sustainable ecosystem for the CCs. The EENC has supported a research paper on "Workshop for Complementary Funding for Cultural Heritage".

• The report is available here.