Circular Letter # 3-2012 – 20 February 2012

For the attention of all national coordinators of the European Heritage Days, a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission.

Dear EHD coordinators,

Subject: European Dimension – Heritage Education

A first meeting on this theme was held in the Council of Europe headquarters, Strasbourg, on February 10, 2012.

The Secretariat stated that:

Over the course of 2012, the Council of Europe and the European Commission will try to facilitate three or four ‘European Dimension’ activities in order to promote cross-border collaboration in EHDs events;

If these activities get off the ground, the 5th EHD Forum in Cyprus will provide an opportunity for the National Coordinators (NCs) to present the results of such collaboration;

The Council of Europe cannot engage in the ‘development’ of the ‘European Dimension’ events, but it can facilitate collaboration on such events in three key ways:

- It can bring partners together;

- It can provide tools such as the communications platform to enable cooperation between between NCs and others;

- It can assist NCs in identifying resources.

Overview of the Meeting

The meeting represented a discussion between the two national Coordinators who had made proposals on Heritage and Education (HE) during the December meeting (Ms Milena Antonić and Ms Nada Andonovska) and the independent association APCP-F, Association Pour le Patrimoine Culturel et sa Pédagogie-France, which had also participated at this meeting and outlined its programme of international work in the field. A representative of the European school of Karlsruhe was unable to attend for professional reasons, but expressed both the strong interest of the school and her personal interest to assist in this form of European cross-frontier cooperation. Participants welcomed this potential partnership and looked forward to future cooperation.

Objectives of the Meeting

The objective of this meeting was to identify the tools, strategies and resources necessary to facilitate cross-frontier cooperation in the field of Heritage Education events between National Coordinators, within the framework of the EHDs.

Results of the Meeting

The participants:

Identified the added value of their work on the European Dimension to heritage and heritage communities;

Established a list of potential events in the field of Heritage and Education;

Identified the role and functions of an umbrella INGO in HE for EHD coordinators who wish to collaborate together on such events;

Set out the changes in the Statue to the ACP-F to provide for this;

Outlined the next steps to be taken to move the European Dimension in Heritage Education and Youth Exchange forward.

You are warmly encouraged to read the full meeting report and to contact the Secretariat if you are interested in collaborating in this European Dimension theme. My intention is to set up an internet forum for the participants so that you can collaborate as a group and carry the development of the events forward more efficiently.

I would like to express my sincere thanks for the work of the participants to this meeting.

Madelena Grossmann