During its first meeting (18-19 February 2021), the Governing Board of the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe adopted its 2021 work programme, elected its Bureau*, and discussed the scope and timeline of the first three-year programme. Its key priority will be to ensure the Observatory’s sustainability by demonstrating its added value, relevance, and viability within the initial trial period.
The newly elected Chair, Alain Lamassoure, stated:
“To increase the added value of the Observatory, we will have to use the experience of all the existing networks in history teaching and draw on the immense expertise of the Council of Europe in this field. To enhance the coherence and the impact of our work, we will also need to convince other countries with different traditions in history teaching to come and join us.”
The Director of Democratic Participation, Matjaž Gruden, added:
“The Observatory is an important complement to the Council of Europe’s intergovernmental programme on history education. It will with time supply a good part of the factual basis on which the intergovernmental programme will build and it will help identify issues that should be addressed by all 50 States parties to the European Cultural Convention through this programme.”
The Observatory Board is composed of government representatives appointed by 17 member States** of the Enlarged Partial Agreement. Over 40 participants attended the meeting online, including the Vice-chair of the Steering Committee for Education Policy and Practice (CDPPE) and further representatives of member States of the Partial Agreement.
(*) Bureau of the Governing Board:
Chair: Mr Alain Lamassoure (France)
Vice-Chairs: Mr Vasileios Gounaris (Greece) and Ms Frances Moss (Ireland)
Bureau Members:
Mr Suren Manukyan (Armenia)
Ms Helena Ramos García (Spain)
Ms Olga Podberezkina (Russian Federation)
Mr Salvador Sala (Andorra)
Ms Anamarija Vicek (Serbia)
(**) Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.
