Council of Europe Conference of European Ministers responsible for Heritage

At the initiative of Maxime PREVOT, Walloon Minister responsible for Heritage, and in the context of the Belgian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the 6th Council of Europe Conference of European Ministers responsible for Heritage is to be held in Namur from 22 to 24 April 2015.

In close co-operation with Prime Ministers Geert Bourgeois and Rudi Vervoort and with Minister Isabelle Weykmans, the Walloon Minister for Heritage, Maxime PREVOT, is to receive his counterparts from Council of Europe member states in order to reaffirm the fundamental role played by heritage in our society.  Heritage is in fact a vehicle for essential values such as democracy and freedom of expression.

The challenge for this conference, 14 years after the previous conference on the subject, which was held in Portoroz, Slovenia, in 2001, is to draw up a strategy for heritage in Europe with the aim of offering to every citizen an instrument in the service of a better quality of life.  In the light of the changes experienced by Europe in recent decades, it seems necessary to start to view the heritage as a learning resource and a living vehicle which makes it possible to achieve an operational link between needs in terms of democracy, freedom and social cohesion.

The objective of the conference will be to adopt a resolution setting out the challenges and priority fields of action for harmonised and consistent heritage management at European level, one which will be put into practice in the context of cross-cutting and unifying themes, such as heritage and employment, heritage and young people, heritage and new technologies.

• Press release
• Online registration site for the Conference