The cooperation project Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe (CHCFE) resulted in a comprehensive Report that demonstrates the multiple benefits of heritage for Europe’s economy, society, culture and the environment, and presents policy recommendations on how to tap into heritage’s full potential. Since its publication, the Report has been widely recognised as a key study on the impact of cultural heritage, including in the European Commission’s proposal to organise a European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018.
The Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe report highlights key findings which are particularly relevant for EU policy circles. First, that cultural heritage represents a great potential for return in investment in fields as varied as employment and job creation, regional attractiveness, quality of life, climate change, education, lifelong learning and social cohesion. Second, that cultural heritage can become a major driver of sustainable development when policies and investments related to all these fields are well coordinated. And third, that until now this full potential still remains largely untapped.
The thorough mapping and analysis of the Europe-wide evidence presented in this document deepens and enhances our understanding and awareness of the full potential of our cultural heritage for sustainable development. This is essential to feed into local, regional, national and European decision making and provide a sound basis for effective policies for heritage.
The CHCFE project was carried out between July 2013 and June 2015 with the support of the EU Culture programme. It was coordinated by Europa Nostra through a Steering Group composed of all project partners: ENCATC (The European Network on Cultural Management and Policy), Europa Nostra, Heritage Europe (The European Association of Historic Towns and Regions), The Heritage Alliance from England as well as The International Cultural Centre (Krakow, Poland) and The Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation at the University of Leuven (Belgium).
