Brussels, 26/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The “cultural treasures” of a member state unlawfully held elsewhere will soon be returning to their place of origin, thanks to a more effective return procedure, the Culture Council has announced. On 26 November, the culture ministers of the EU reached an agreement on the compromise text of the Lithuanian Presidency and the Council adopted a general position on the proposal of the European Commission of May 2013 on the returns of cultural treasures which have been unlawfully removed from the territory of a member state. The current directive dates from 1993, but has not been particularly effective and has not led to the return of national goods, Lithuanian Culture Minister Sarunas Birutis pointed out. The Commission's proposal aims to plug the gaps of the current directive. “It is important that the EU helps to protect national heritage and the directive fights trafficking in cultural items. The Commission wants to plug the gaps in order to step up returns of cultural objects and bring down the costs of this”, said Commissioner for Culture Androulla Vassiliou.
The preparatory discussions showed that the member states are open to the Commission's proposal. However, the Council brought in the following amendments: the creation of an expert group to create a platform for the exchange of best practice and an extension of the period of time granted for the directive to be transposed into national law. The adoption of the general position will allow the forthcoming Greek Presidency to start informal talks with the European Parliament, with a view to adopting the proposal before the end of the legislative period. The vote within the competent committee (CULT committee) is scheduled for 21 January 2014. Readers may recall that the Commission has proposed four major changes to the current directive: 1) the lifting of restrictions to the return of cultural goods: any cultural good described as a “cultural treasure” by a member state can now be the subject of a return; 2) extending the timescales: member states will have five months (rather than two) to verify whether a good is its “national treasure” and three years (instead of one) to bring an action for its recovery; 3) the burden of proof: this will now lie with the person in possession of the good for the purposes of compensation; 4) use of the single market information system to improve cooperation and exchanges of information between the national authorities. (IL/transl.fl)