News & Statements Archive 2007

Priorities of the German EU Council Presidency in the field of culture and the audiovisual media

February 2007

The German EU Council Presidency pointed out the following priorities in the field of culture and the audiovisual media in the following months:

 

II.1 Culture:

• Lisbon Strategy
• Enhancing the role of culture in Europe
• The new three-year work plan
• Establishment of common positions at international level
• Fostering a sense of common identity
• EU cultural policy to complement national policies

 

II.2 Audiovisual Media

• The revision of the Television without Frontiers Directive

 

Read more about the priorities....

 

 

NEMO supports the German EU presidency's conference on "Collection Mobility: Building up trust and networking"

April 2007

Within the German EU Presidency in the first half of 2007, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and the German Museum Association – together with NEMO, the Network of European Museum Organisations – are holding a workshop on “Mobility of Collections – Building Up Trust and Networking”. With their collections, the European museums are in the possession of a marvellous heritage documenting the cultural identity and diversity of a united Europe.

 

One focus of the Action Plan for the EU promotion of Museum Collections’ Mobility and Loan Standards is the topic of “Trust and Networking”. It represents the foundation of a successful co-operation between European museums. The workshop in Bremen is designed to serve as a forum for open co-operation and improved networking between museums, museum organizations and representatives of cultural and political life, itself vital for the exchange of cultural objects in a united Europe. NEMO was invited to support the workshop because it has worked closely with other museum organizations in this respect for many years and its members have participated in establishing the "Action Plan for the EU promotion of museum collections mobility and loan standards".

More information about the conference...

 

 

 

First-ever European strategy for culture

May 2007

The European Commission adopted in May a policy statement entitled "A European agenda for culture in a globalising world". It affirms the central role of culture in the process of European integration and proposes a cultural agenda for Europe, and for its relations with third countries. Its adoption follows an extensive consultation process involving decision-makers and interested parties from all over Europe.
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission: “Culture and creativity touch the daily life of citizens. They are important drivers for personal development, social cohesion and economic growth. But they mean much more : they are the core elements of a European project based on common values and a common heritage – which, at the same time, recognizes and respects diversity. Today's strategy promoting intercultural understanding confirms culture's place at the heart of our policies".
The new policy stance is complemented by an accompanying Staff Working Paper which describes the many ways in which the European Union supports culture. The policy statement presents three major objectives of a cultural strategy for the European Institutions, the Member States, and the cultural and creative sector: 1. Promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; 2. Promotion of culture as a catalyst for creativity in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy; and 3. Promotion of culture as a vital element in the Union's international relations.
The EU is also looking forward to the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and recognises the need for a European strategy for culture that is both open to diversity within Europe, and at the same time open to the world. A fundamental feature of the new policy stance is the proposal to introduce a more structured system of cooperation among the Member States and the EU institutions on cultural matters. The mechanism is based on the 'open method of coordination' (OMC) that has been successfully used to structure the collaboration of Member States and EU in the area of education & training, youth and social protection. The European strategy for culture will be complemented by other actions by the EU in the area of culture, such as the forthcoming European Year for Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

 

Read more: COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN  PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

Communication on a European agenda for culture in a globalizing world

 

 

 

 

Results of the call for proposals EACEA 06/2006

May 2007

On 4 May 2007, the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency has decided to award operational grants for 2007 to the following bodies active at European level in the field of culture.

Read more...

 

2007 EUROPEAN MUSEUM OF THE YEAR AWARD

May 2007

 The European Museum of the Year Award, organised by the European Museum Forum, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, with a Presentation Ceremony and associated activities based at various venues in Alicante, Spain, hosted by MARQ Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Alicante and local sponsoring organisations.

 The 2007 Awards were announced on Saturday 5 May,the results of the 2007 Awards are as follows:

 

The Micheletti Award for the most promising technical or industrial museum among the current year’s candidates goes to Brunel’s ss Great Britain in Bristol, U.K.

The Council of Europe Award, a bronze statuette by Miró, goes to the International Museum of the Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland, as the first and only museum dealing with the subject of the Reformation in Europe.

The 2007 European Museum of the Year Award is given to the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven. This stylish museum, in a purpose-built building on the site of the dock from which more than seven million emigrants from Germany and Eastern Europe departed, pays tribute to those who left for a variety of reasons, bound for the New World.

 

Specially commended

* Museum of the Bresse Region, Saint-Cyr-sur-Menthon, France

* The Dolhuys: Museum of Psychiatry, Haarlem, The Netherlands

* The Railway Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands

* Paul Klee Centre, Bern, Switzerland

 

These four museums received a special diploma recognising their excellence in conception, innovative approach to interpretation and attention to the needs of their visitors.

 

 

May 2007 issue of the CULT Gazette

 May 2007

The May 2007 issue of the CULT Gazette, the electronic newsletter of the Committee on Culture and Education of the the European Parliament, with information and news about the most recent Committee meetings and the most important topics, is available now.

Download pdf version CULT Gazette

 

 

Bremen Declaration on the “Mobility of Museum Collections”

June 2007

Since 2004 the topic of collections mobility has been held to be a high priority within the European Union. After co-operation between various presidencies, the Action Plan for the EU Promotion of Museum Collections’ Mobility and Loan Standards was endorsed by the Education, Youth and Culture Council in November 2006.

During the German EU-presidency a conference in Bremen on 6/7 May 2007 focused on one of the six key strands of the Action Plan – “Building up trust and Networking” to encourage the exchange of museum objects and means to explore measures in order to enhance the mobility of collections.

 

As a result of the expert's conference the participants adopted the Declaration on the “Mobility of Museum Collections”.

 

 

Portuguese EU Presidency

July 2007

The Portuguese EU-presidency for the second half of the year 2007 started on the 1st of July, following the German EU-presidency. Portugal especially wants to focus on the Cultural Industries in the cultural sector during its presidency.

Portugal's EU-Presidency website

 

Call for Proposals 2008 for the Culture Programme (2007-2013) published

August 2007

The Call for Proposals 2008 for the Culture Programme (2007-2013) was published in the EU Official Journal on 7 August (OJ C 184).  This can be found on the following website: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:184:SOM:EN:HTML.

 This will be followed by the detailed specifications and related documentation soon to be published on the official EC Culture website: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/index_en.html.

Please note that the European Commission will be organising an Information Day on Culture funding opportunities in 2008 on Friday 14 September in Brussels. Further details are available at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/culture/index_en.htm

 

 

Study visits for education and vocational training specialists - Call for applications for March – June 2008 (pilot phase)

September 2007

Study visits is one of the key actions of the transversal programme of the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-13 (LLP) that was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 5 November 2006 (Decision 1720/2006/EC, OJ L 327, 24.11.2006.).

A study visit is a short-term visit of three to five days for a small group of specialists and decision-makers representing various groups of education and vocational training. They are stakeholders who want to examine a particular aspect of lifelong learning in another participating country. The groups normally consist of 10 to15 participants.

Study visits are organised locally or regionally and coordinated by the National Agency (CCP). The programme is open to nationals or permanent residents of 27 EU Member States, EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and candidate countries (Turkey).

The study visits provide a forum for discussion, exchange and learning on themes of common interest and on European and national priorities. By exchanging innovative ideas and practices, participants promote the quality and transparency of their education and training systems. Furthermore, during the study visits participants have an opportunity to establish professional contacts that might potentially be used for developing new projects and creating networks

further information about the programme and application details...

 

 

Infoday on Culture funding opportunities 2008 : Second Session

Septmeber 2007

The new Culture Programme runs for the period 2007-2013. The 2008 funding opportunities under this programme have been launched early August. In this context, a first Information Day has been organised last September 14 in Brussels by the European Commission (Directorate General Education and Culture) together with the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. Due to the high level of interest raised by the Infoday, and to enable the maximum of stakeholders to benefit from this service, a second session will take place on the 5th of October in Brussels.

The participants in the Info Days will have the occasion to know more about the European cultural Agenda, about the programme's contents, and about administrative and financial aspects. Key issues and practical recommendations related to the preparation and submission of applications, as well as to the management of grants, will be addressed by various speakers during the day. News and changes since the previous calls for proposals will be also highlighted.

Further information and registration....

Download-Center of the EACEA: presentations and application information for the Culture Programme 2007-2013 (InfoDay on Culture, 14. September 2007, Brussels).

 

 

European Digital Library Kick Off Meeting

September 2007

The EDL Kick Off meeting was much appreciated. A project has begun to bring the European heritage online through a single portal.

Seventy senior managers and technical experts from museums, archives, audio-visual collections and libraries across Europe came together to plan the European Digital Library. The meeting took place at the National Library of the Netherlands.

Download press release here

 

 

NEMO statement on i2010: towards a European digital library-Report

September 2007

The Committee on Culture and Education adopted the initiative report by Marie-Helene Descamps (EPP-ED, FR) on i2010: towards a European digital library. The report recommends setting up in stages a European digital library in the form of a single, direct and multilingual access point to European cultural heritage.

 

Regarding that this report is on the agenda of the European Parliament on Wednesday, 26 September 2007, NEMO – the Network of European Museum Organisations – feels obliged to point out that the report unfortunately focuses on libraries only and does not take into account that the European cultural heritage is also preserved by museums and archives! It is true that libraries are on the forefront of digitisation. Nevertheless one has to take into account that a lot of museums already provide digitised information about European cultural heritage. Therefore also museums are prepared to contribute to the European digital library.

Download NEMO statement on i2010-strategy 

 

 

Eurobarometer qualitative study on the Europeans, culture and cultural values

September 2007
In 2007, the European Commission (Directorate General Education and Culture) commissioned a quantitative Eurobarometer study to measure public opinion on culture and values within Europe, in order to ascertain both opinions and behaviour in this area. The objectives of the study were in particular to analyze:
- How Europeans conceive of the idea of culture and its importance to them.
- Europeans’ involvement in cultural and artistic activities, the role of the Internet in this, barriers to cultural access and views on the trend towards free cultural access.
- Issues of cultural exchange, specifically its value to society, the extent to which cross-cultural contact already occurs, the willingness of Europeans to meet people from other countries and to learn a new language, ways in which cross-cultural understanding can be enhanced and actors best placed to implement these measures.
- Interest in culture both in Europe and beyond; views on whether there is indeed a European culture, its characteristics and the effects upon it of globalisation.
- Opinion on key values to be preserved and reinforced in society as well as whether these are seen as particularly European in nature.

Further information and full report...

 

 

Cultural statistics in the EU27

October 2007

Culture plays a significant role in the daily life of European citizens. With nearly 300 cultural sites out of almost 700 on the UNESCO list, the 27 Member States of the European Union possess a significant cultural heritage. The importance of culture today is shown by the fact that cultural employment accounted for almost five million people, 2.4% of total employment in the EU27 in 2005.

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has gathered the main available culture statistics comparable at a European level in a single publication - Cultural statistics. The publication includes chapters on cultural employment, enterprises and external trade as well as cultural expenditure and participation.

Download Cultural Statistics (pdf)

 

 

New Chair of CULT Committee

12 November 2007

Mrs Katerina Batzeli, was elected new chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament today in Strasbourg. She succeeds Mr Nikolaos Sifunakis, who resigned from the European Parliament since he was elected to the Greek Parliament.

 

 

Europa Nostra selected by the European Commission to run the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage

November 2007

Europa Nostra, out of 14 candidates, has been selected by the European Commission - Education and Culture to continue running the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage. In the past five years, the Europa Nostra Awards were already organised in cooperation with the EU Prize under the European Commission Culture 2000 Programme. To these five years another seven may now be added under the Commission's new Culture Programme.

Europa Nostra already started organising this Awards Scheme and received entries from around Europe over the month of September. Jury meetings for each of the four Prize Categories will take place in early 2008 and the winners will be announced shortly after. The European Awards Ceremony will this year take place in Durham Cathedral, United Kingdom, on 12 June 2008.

further information: Sander van der Ven, Heritage Awards Coordinator, awards@europanostra.org 

 

 

Elections to the NEMO board

November 2007

On the Annual Meeting in Riga Mechtild Kronenberg, Director of the German Museums Association, was reelected to act as the Chair of NEMO for the following two years.

 

Margherita Sani from the Istituto Beni Culturali, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy, and Elizabeta Petrusa Strukelj from the Slovenian Museums Association, Slovenia, were appointed on the NEMO executive board. NEMO is very honoured to count on their valuable input for the network’s future activities.  

 

 

NEMO Annual Meeting 2007 in Riga/Latvia

November 2007

From 23 to 25 November 2007 NEMO - The Network of European Museum Organisations – is holding its annual meeting in Riga/Latvia. 27 representatives of national museum associations and related bodies from 17 countries are discussing museum related issues on a European scale.

 

In the course of the meeting the NEMO members, which embrace not only the representatives of the European Union but also of countries associated to the EU and Russia, give a presentations of the developments in their respective museum sector in order to discuss these issues on a European level. EU-relevant topics such as the mobility of collections, the European Digital Library, the role of museums as keepers of cultural heritage and as platforms for life-long learning will be discussed in Riga.

 

 

 

Official launch of the NEMO Standard Loan Agreement

November 2007

After two years of work NEMO has released the NEMO Standard Loan Agreement in the course of it's Annual Meeting in Riga – a document which is applicable by all kinds of museums in order to encourage them to increase lending and borrowing of works of arts throughout Europe. The NEMO Standard Loan Agreement consists in the first part of a Loan Agreement that is accompanied in the second part by separate Loan Conditions. While the Loan Agreement contains general information about the lender and the borrower (name of object to be lent, name of the exhibition, addresses, costs), the Loan Conditions refer to aspects such as: general conditions, costs, liability, packing and transportation, couriers, care of objects and installation, environment, security and safety, reproductions and publicity, acknowledgements, sponsors, withdrawal, termination immunity from seizure, governing law and jurisdiction.

 

To make the document available for every museum in Europe NEMO has developed an online-tool-kit, that will enable museums – both as lenders and borrowers – to create their individual loan document online according to the specific conditions and requirements of each museum and each object. To help the users work with the standard English version, NEMO will provide translations of the document in all European languages.

 

For further information about the Standard Loan Agreement and online-tool-kit click here…

 

 

2007 - European Year of Equal Opportunities for All

January 2007

2007 was pronounced to be the “European Year of Equal Opportunities for All” by the EU. Activities on European, national, regional and local levels will address issues of anti-discrimination.

The year 2008 will be the "Year of Intercultural Dialogue". Read more about the Unions action here...

 

 

2007 Council of Europe Award

January 2007

The 2007 Council of Europe Award, which is decided by the Committee on Culture, Science and Educationof the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, goes to the International Museum of the Reformation in geneva, Switzerland. The jury praised the museum´s international outlook and demonstration of religious tolerance.  

 

 

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