Brussels, 09/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - France, Germany and Italy have repeated their call for a European regulation to tackle trafficking in cultural property.
The three countries' culture ministers - Fleur Pellerin (France), Monika Grütters (Germany) and Dario Franceschini (Italy) - wrote to the European Commission on Monday 7 December asking it to bring forward a regulation as quickly as possible to address the illegal import of cultural property into the European Union. This initiative follows on from a policy debate and the adoption of a statement on this issue by ministers at the Culture Council on 24 November.
A few months ago, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova called the destruction by terrorist group Daesh of cultural heritage “cultural cleansing”. She said that, since the start of the conflict, Daesh has damaged, destroyed or plundered more than 300 historic sites in Syria, including those at Palmyra, Hatra, Nimrud and Khorsabad (the former capital of Syria). In destroying and pillaging the archaeological sites of Iraq and Syria, not only are the terrorists attacking the heritage of all humanity and the very soul of the region, the cradle of our civilisation, they are also financing abject crimes both in the Middle East and in Europe, the ministers say in a joint press release.
They call for closer inspection of imported goods, similar to that in place for the export of member states' cultural goods. At the Culture Council, Commissioner Tibor Navracsics acknowledged a lack of consistency on the import of illegal goods within the EU and undertook to consider the issue. “We will launch a study and impact assessment on this issue at the start of 2016 to determine whether or not legislation is necessary. We will consider the taxation and customs aspects and the sums of money involved in these imports and report back to Council in the second half of the year”, he said. The incoming Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the EU, which will take up the reins on 1 January, has already announced that it will hold two meetings, one in February and the other in May to discuss this issue. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)