At the informal ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ meeting organised in Nicosia on Friday 23 January by the Cyprus Presidency of the EU, the European Justice Ministers agreed on the need for tougher action on the return of illegally exported cultural goods. Following the debates, Costas Fitiris, Cypriot Minister of Justice and Public Order, announced that he had “called on the Commission to submit relevant impact studies” on the subject.
In his view, this is “particularly important given the weaknesses identified in the existing legal framework of the EU and the discrepancies between national laws”, which “are exploited by antiquities dealers, unscrupulous dealers and dishonest owners exploit in order to choose the most favourable legal regime for them, transferring stolen cultural goods to countries with the most favourable laws”. The Minister estimated that illegal export in cultural goods would generate around €5 billion.
Liisa-Ly Pakosta, his Estonian counterpart, emphasised that the problem goes beyond that: “Estonia has still not recovered its cultural heritage from Russia, which took it during the Second World War, when Estonia was under Russian occupation”, she said, calling for “unified action” from the EU. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)