Appendix – Comments by the Steering Committee
for Cultural Heritage and Landscape (CDPATEP) on Recommendation 1851 (2008)
1. The Steering
Committee for Cultural Heritage and Landscape (CDPATEP) has taken
note with great interest of Parliamentary Assembly
Recommendation 1851 (2008) on “Crafts and cultural heritage conservation skills”
and of the report on the subject by Baroness Hooper (
Doc. 11761). It particularly welcomes the pertinence and clarity
of that report, which recalls all the initiatives taken by the Council
of Europe since the late 1970s, both reference texts and Committee
of Ministers’ recommendations, the support given in the 1980s and
1990s to the “European Centre for the training of craftsmen in conservation
of the architectural heritage” in Venice and, lastly, the reorientation
of the European Foundation for Heritage Skills (FEMP), in 1995,
which became the lead agency of a European network active in heritage
skills.
2. The CDPATEP is more than satisfied at the information in the
Assembly report on the new image of the European Centre for Heritage
Crafts and Professions now housed in the Villa Fabris in Thiene
(Italy) with the support of the association “Confartigianato di
Vicenza”. At the same time, it regrets the discontinuation, under the
circumstances referred to by the Assembly, of the services provided
by the FEMP, which had facilitated a series of multinational professional
collaborative efforts to pass on skills with the help of European
Union programmes and co-funding mechanisms. No similar such agency
to develop shared skills projects has subsequently been set up in
one or more of the Organisation’s member states, despite the relevance
it would have in the area of in-service training.
3. The CDPATEP shares the view expressed in
Recommendation 1851 (2008) and by the Assembly rapporteur as to the importance
of maintaining skills and of developing new competences, professions
and skills in the area of heritage enhancement as a factor in local
development, economic regeneration and job creation. This potential
is by no means restricted to the prospects of cultural tourism and
the conservation of various outstanding monuments. Consideration
should be given to its true significance as a means of safeguarding
and improving the urban and rural environment for the benefit of
the entire population. Economic globalisation calls today for in-depth
examination of the sustainable use of heritage resources in the
light of serious ecological concerns and as a response to the right
of people to a healthy environment. In addition to construction
skills, account needs to be taken of the whole array of skills and
professions associated with the built environment and the context
of everyday life.
4. In terms of initiatives to be taken in the future, the CDPATEP
would recommend that the text of the Council of Europe Parliamentary
Assembly report should be widely disseminated to the government departments
responsible for culture, heritage, education, vocational training,
the environment, small and medium-sized enterprises, and craft skills
in member states as well as to appropriate NGOs. As regards intergovernmental
co-operation under the aegis of the Council of Europe and the priorities
of the Third Summit, the CDPATEP observes that the transmission
of skills referred to by the Assembly, far from being ancillary,
is a means of physically preserving a diversity of forms of cultural
expression on the ground, and of strengthening them.
5. While bearing in mind that the restricted nature of the Organisation’s
budgetary resources makes it difficult to put into practice the
various initiatives suggested by the Parliamentary Assembly, the
CDPATEP puts forward the following suggestions for closer examination
on the occasion of its Bureau session at the end of 2009 and during
its plenary session in 2010:
a With
regard to the exchange of information and concerted action recommended
in paragraph 13 of the Assembly recommendation, extension of the
HEREIN network used to implement Council of Europe heritage conventions
could facilitate pooling of information and the emergence of shared
projects. Working through that network could make it easier to establish
a platform that brings together governmental public services, professional
bodies and NGOs whose activities focus on training and the updating
of vocational skills. Such an approach would consist of increasing
awareness of needs and of fostering the creation of pilot projects
to encourage advances in practice. A group of countries may also decide
to come together at the 2010 plenary session of the CDPATEP to examine
in greater detail during the following months the directions set
out in
Recommendation
1851 (2008);
b A small working group involving the Secretariat (DGIV
and the Parliamentary Assembly) and experts from the heritage sector
could also be set up in 2010 to study the point raised in paragraph
10 of
Recommendation
1851 (2008) on how to follow up the cessation of FEMP activities
and the steps to be taken if its earlier input is not to be lost.
