CULTURAL HERITAGE POLICY

“France is an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It ensures equality before the law of all citizens without distinction as to origin, race or religion. It respects all beliefs. Its organisation shall be decentralised.” (Article 1 of the 1958 Constitution). Mainland France is divided into three tiers of territorial entities : municipalities, departments and regions. Accordingly, the state has “central” services and “dispersed” services in regions and departments.

The state is responsible for the national heritage policy. The Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Ministry of Ecological Transition ensure joint management of the cultural and natural heritage over the territory, and engage in constant dialogue on all heritage matters with civil society, in particular associations, aiming at good governance.

While state commitment remains fundamental, linkage between heritage and territorial design is also actuated at the local level, and heritage policies also depend on the dynamism of the local and regional authorities.

 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

See the website and organogram of the Direction générale des Patrimoines on the website of the Ministry of Culture.

Ministry of Culture

It is specifically responsible for implementing the policy on protection, preservation and restoration of the heritage, chiefly through the agency of the regional directorates of cultural affairs (DRAC) and the territorial architectural and heritage services (STAP) which were recently grouped. Heritage architects perform an important role alongside the architects of the State Buildings authority in guaranteeing compliance with area-based protection measures.

General Directorate for Heritage

Within the Ministry of Culture, it performs a unifying role and implements this policy of managing the various types of heritages. It is in charge of designing, organising, guiding, optimising and evaluating state policy for the benefit of heritages.

Regional directorates of cultural affairs (DRAC)

Dispersed services of the state, the network implements at the regional level the policies determined by the Ministry at the central level. It acts in close partnership with the local and regional authorities and the regional cultural players.

Local and regional authorities

They are gradually taking up their position in the management of heritage policy. Accordingly, in 1983, then in 2004, new responsibilities were transferred to local and regional authorities, particularly the general inventory of the cultural heritage and the possibility of transfers of ownership of protected buildings as historic monuments.

 LEGAL FRAMEWORK

2013 marks the centenary of the law of 31 December 1913 on the protection of historic monuments, a truly seminal law on heritage policy.

The ”code du patrimoine” (2004) consolidated the texts on heritage conservation (all assets, whether immovable or movable, in public or private ownership, of historical, artistic, archaeological, aesthetic, scientific or technical interest).

A new law on the freedom of creation, architecture and heritage (LOI n° 2016-925) has been adopted on 7 July 2016. This law notably incorporates the management modalities of UNESCO World Heritage properties into national law. The conservation and enhancement rules imposed by this classification will henceforth have to be taken into account in the preparation of urban planning documents. In addition, the Act creates the notion of "outstanding heritage sites" for cities, towns, villages or neighbourhoods whose conservation, restoration, rehabilitation or presentation is of public interest from the historical, architectural, archaeological, artistic or landscape point of view. Furthermore, the law creates a label dedicated to heritage of recent architectural interest (goods of less than a century which cannot be recognised as "historic monuments") to ensure that their modification or destruction does not take place without prior consultation with the heritage protection authorities.

 RATIFIED INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS

• Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954): ratified by France on 17 June 1957
• Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) – ratified by France on 7 January 1997
• Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972): ratified by France on 27 June 1975
• Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Granada, 1985): ratified on 13 March 1987
• European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) (Valletta, 1992); ratified on 10 July 1995
• European Landscape Convention (Florence, 2000): ratified on 17 March 2006
• Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001): ratified on 7 February 2013
• Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003): ratified by France on 11 July 2006

All international agreements and/or treaties ratified must be published in the Official Gazette of the French Republic. Publication is for the purpose of making public the content of the agreement and introducing the agreement into the national legal system. www.legifrance.gouv.fr/