Drawn together by a common goal of promoting Europe’s outstanding heritage, Europa Nostra and European Heritage Days both have made a significant contribution to strengthening the public awareness of shared European history and culture. In the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018, the successful synergy between the two organisations can play an important role in promoting the ideas behind this initiative and expanding the celebrations of our heritage.

On the annual European Heritage Days plenary meeting in Madrid in 2016, Europa Nostra Vice President Piet Jaspaert reminded of the fact that our heritage is an ideal way to speak about Europe. He also suggested that Europa Nostra and European Heritage Days should act together in the European Year of Cultural Heritage to promote our shared values and cultural identity.

“Our identity has been formed through influences coming all over Europe and I think that is one of the forthright, new, strong arguments in European Year of Cultural Heritage. And we should do it together – Europa Nostra and European Heritage Days.

As a way to promote the common goals of Europa Nostra and European Heritage Days, Mr. Jaspaert proposed the way to integrate European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards in the European Heritage Days programme. In 2016, this was achieved with the award ceremony in the historic Stella Artois Brewery in Leuven, which took place during the European Heritage Days weekend in Belgium - Flanders. A similar initiative took place in France in 2015, when the award ceremony for the Garden City of Stains was organised to mark the official opening of the European Heritage Days in the Plaine Commune, France.

This was an excellent occasion to highlight the role of local communities in heritage preservation, which was the common theme of European Heritage Days 2016. By working together to create more of such opportunities in future, Europa Nostra and European Heritage Days can truly make a difference in the European Year of Cultural Heritage and beyond.