10 European Heritage Label
| (31414)
7094/10
COM(10) 76
+ ADDs 1-2
| Draft Decision to establish a European Union action for the European Heritage Label
Commission staff working documents: impact assessment and summary of assessment
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| Legal base | Article 167 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
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| Document originated | 9 March 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 15 March 2010
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| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 31 March 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
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Background
10.1 The concept of a European Heritage Label (EHL) is not new.
In 2006. France, Hungary and Spain made an inter-governmental
agreement to introduce an EHL to "strengthen the support
of European citizens for a shared European identity and foster
a sense of belonging to a common cultural space". Since 2007,
64 sites in 17 Member States and in Switzerland have been awarded
the label.
10.2 In November 2008, the Council invited the Commission
to make a proposal for the creation of an EU European Heritage
Label, transforming the existing inter-governmental agreement
into an EU initiative. In 2009, the Commission issued a consultation
paper on the idea. The then Minister for Culture and Tourism (Barbara
Follett) wrote to our predecessors about the consultation paper
and enclosed a copy of the Government's response to it. In a nutshell,
the Government said that the UK had 27 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
and was trying to reduce the number of heritage designations.
It doubted the justification for creating another designation
scheme.
10.3 Article 167 of the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union (TFEU) requires the EU to contribute to
"the flowering of the cultures of the Member States […]
at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the
fore". The Article provides that EU action should support
and supplement the efforts of Member States to improve and disseminate
the culture and history of the European peoples. It gives the
Council and the European Parliament power to adopt incentive measures
to contribute to the achievement of the Article's objectives.
The document
10.4 The Commission proposes this draft Decision
in response to the Council's invitation. Article 3 provides that
the objectives of the EU EHL would be to:
- strengthen EU citizen's sense
of belonging to the EU;
- strengthen inter-cultural dialogue, especially
between young people;
- increase public awareness of sites which have
played an important part in the history of the EU;[47]
- increase EU citizen's — and particularly
young people's — understanding of the development of Europe
and their common but diverse cultural heritage;
- develop the European significance of sites;
- facilitate sharing of experience and best practice;
- increase public access to sites; and
- contribute to the attractiveness and sustainable
development of the regions where sites are located.
10.5 Article 4 provides that participation in the
EU EHL scheme would be open to all Member States and entirely
voluntary.
10.6 Article 7 provides that:
- applicants for the award of
an EU EHL would have to satisfy the specific criteria set out
in the Article (demonstrate, for example, that the site is of
more than national interest or has links with important European
events or personalities);
- applicants would also have to produce a statement
showing how they would organise and run the project (so as, for
example, to promote multilingualism by using several EU languages);
and
- in addition, applicants would have to produce
a management plan showing how they would, for example, ensure
access to the site by the widest range of people, provide visitor
information and protect the environment.
10.7 Article 8 provides for the appointment of an
independent European panel to select sites to receive an EHL.
The panel would have 12 members who are expert in European history,
culture or other relevant matters. Four would be appointed by
the Council, four by the Commission and four by the European Parliament.
Their term of office would be three years.
10.8 Article 10 gives participating Member States
responsibility for "pre-selection": that is, for deciding
which applications for the award of an EU EHL to a site in the
participating State's territory should go forward for consideration
by the European selection panel. The State could not pre-select
more than two sites a year.
10.9 Under Article 11, the European selection panel
would be required to evaluate all the pre-selected sites and,
using the criteria listed in Article 7, recommends no more than
one site from each participating Member State for the award of
the EU EHL. Article 13 gives the Commission responsibility for
making the award to the sites recommended by the panel. The Label
is permanent unless the panel recommends its withdrawal because
the site no longer satisfies the criteria for the EU EHL.
10.10 Article 17 gives the Commission responsibility
for ensuring that there is an independent and external evaluation
of the EU EHL scheme every six years and for reporting the findings
to the Council and the European Parliament.
10.11 Article 19 allocates the scheme a budget of
€1,350,000 for the three years from the beginning of 2011
until the end of 2013.
The Government's view
10.12 In her Explanatory Memorandum of 31 March 2010,
the then Minister for Culture and Tourism (Margaret Hodge) said
that the Government retained its doubts about the need for an
EU EHL scheme (see paragraph 10.2 above). In its view, the UNESCO
World Heritage List is sufficient for designating supra-national
significance. Moreover, the Government believed that there is
a risk that, over time, the complexity and burden of managing
an EU EHL scheme would grow.
10.13 The Minister said that, at present, the Government
considered that the UK should not take part in the scheme. Even
so, the Government would try to ensure, during the negotiations
on the draft Directive, that the burdens and obligations placed
on Member States and the owners and managers of heritage sites
are minimised.
Conclusion
10.14 We share the Government's view that an EU
Heritage Label scheme should be created only if there is a strong
justification for it. We also share its doubts that the case has
been made. It is clear, however, that many other Member States
value the current inter-governmental scheme. So there may be wide
support for the draft Decision. We agree with the Government that
it is vital that participation in the EU scheme should be entirely
voluntary.
10.15 The negotiations on the draft Decision are
still at an early stage. We should be grateful, therefore, if
the Minister would send us progress reports on the negotiations.
Meanwhile, we shall keep the document under scrutiny.
47 Article 2 of the draft Decision defines sites as
"monuments, natural or urban sites, cultural landscapes,
places of remembrance, cultural goods and objects, intangible
heritage attached to a place, including contemporary heritage". Back
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