European Heritage Network (HEREIN)

Culture, Heritage and Diversity

CULTURAL HERITAGE
Architectural and Archaeological Heritage
European Heritage Network (HEREIN)
European Heritage Days
Values for Society
Young People and Heritage
TERRITORY AND LANDSCAPE
Spatial planning (CEMAT)
Landscape (ELC)

The HEREIN Network

Herein 2012 The European Heritage Network (HEREIN) brings together 44 government departments responsible for cultural heritage under the umbrella of the Council of Europe. Since it was set up in 1999, the HEREIN network has become a reference point for government bodies, professionals, researchers, non-governmental organisations active in this field and all interested citizens.

The HEREIN Network is concerned with how cultural heritage policies are developing, and how they contribute to improving people’s living environment and to fostering intercultural dialogue. It facilitates co-operation among all Council of Europe member states by involving them in joint programmes, and it encourages the exchange of information on the role of heritage in a knowledge-based society.

The idea of HEREIN is to promote best practice and foster the adaptation of public authorities’ policies, thus contributing to improving governance methods for cultural heritage.

The HEREIN network offers a database and a thesaurus (see below).

The HEREIN Database

The HEREIN database provides an overview of the cultural heritage policies pursued in European countries. The information is provided and regularly updated by the national partners, who have nominated national coordinators.

HEREIN database offers the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) a tool for following up the implementation of the Council of Europe's conventions heritage in member states.

The new version of the HEREIN database (HEREIN 3) will be available by the end of 2012. Meanwhile, the previous 2009 version of the HEREIN 2 database remains accessible online.

The HEREIN Thesaurus

The HEREIN network also offers a unique multilingual thesaurus, covering concepts and terms in the domain of heritage policies and programmes, with the aim of harmonising the description and the understanding of heritage policies throughout Europe.

The HEREIN Thesaurus, available in 14 languages, consists of about 700 terms connected by relationships such as hierarchy, equivalences, related terms and non-preferred terms. It is already possible to look at the different categories and search for words, their relationships and their equivalents in all available languages, although the thesaurus tool is still under development and a user interface is not available at this stage.

Basic documents

Charter on the functioning of the European Heritage Network