The proceedings of the conference are available here.

To receive a printed version or the high resolution PDF, please contact brigitte.myle@rwo.vlaanderen.be.

The conference was made a success thanks to the valuable contributions of the speakers as well as the participants. Therefore we would like to thank all of them for their presence in Bruges!

The presentations and speeches of the day are now available on our website. The full proceedings will be available mid 2011.

Cultural heritage: a resource for Europe. The benefits of interaction.

Cultural heritage is important for Europe and Europe's cultural heritage is one of the world's richest. Every year there are millions of visitors to monuments, historical city centres, archaelogical sites and archives. This not only creates a substantial economic value but also demonstrates that heritage plays an important role in the quality of life as well as in the individual and collective identity of the European citizens.

In Europe, the preservation and management of cultural heritage is organised at national or regional level. Cultural heritage is all around us and therefore, it is closely related to other fields such as agriculture, spatial planning, education, media, research and environment.  This close interaction has also consequences for European policy.

The conference 'Cultural heritage: a resource for Europe. The benefits of interaction' aims to increase awareness among European policy makers and the cultural heritage sector about cultural heritage and the way in which cultural heritage is closely related to other policy areas. It seeks to encourage all stakeholders for a broad cooperation in which interaction with the European policy level is on the forefront. With the 'Declaration of Bruges' the Belgian presidency of the EU wants to give an initial impetus to this initiative.

9 December 2010

Bruges - Oud Sint-Jan