Culture ministers have decided to return to the idea of a European year following two years without a theme. They agreed a general approach on Tuesday 22 November on the proposal that 2018 be designated the European Year of Cultural Heritage.
European years focus on specific areas in order to provoke debate and dialogue in and among countries. This decision, which has still to be approved by the European Parliament, may very well lead to nothing as it has not been allocated any funding.
The objective of the draft decision is to highlight the major role of cultural heritage in the history of the EU and common identities. Presenting the text in August, Commissioner Tibor Navracsics said that it would provide the opportunity to raise people’s awareness of the socio-economic importance of cultural heritage and to promote European excellence in this area.
The general approach – adopted by consensus, without the support of the United Kingdom which had a parliamentary scrutiny reservation – slightly alters the draft text: it adds, for example, film to what is embraced by cultural heritage. It introduces new specific objectives in order to lay the emphasis on accessibility, environmental issues and anniversaries of historic events in 2018. It also puts the focus on children and vulnerable groups in the objective dealing with education.
Money is the key. Ministers did not, however, make any changes on the budget, where no provision is made for any funding specifically for the initiative. In 2011, the European Year of Volunteering had a total budget of €14.5 million. All the European Years that followed saw drastic cuts in their funding (€5 million for the Year of Active Ageing in 2012, €3.8 million for the Year of Citizens in 2013-2014). A review of the European Year of Citizens concluded that the budget allocated bore no relation to the level of ambition of the year.
In Parliament, the culture committee, the lead committee on this issue, agreed to call for €15 million in funding for the preparation, implementation and initiatives leading to the long-term sustainability of the year. This was confirmed by Parliament's rapporteur, Mircea Diaconu (ALDE, Romania). [Council general approach: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-14385-2016-INIT/en/pdf ] (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)