This decree-law creates the Cultural Heritage Safeguard Fund within the scope of the Ministry of Culture. Thus, measures to protect and value cultural heritage are reinforced with their own means of financing.
This Fund responds to the need to safeguard cultural assets in emergency situations and meets the possibility of a programmed policy for the acquisition, rehabilitation, conservation and restoration of assets of relevant cultural interest. It complies with the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 162/2008, of October 24, which determines the creation of a fund, within the scope of the Ministry of Culture, for the rehabilitation and conservation of classified properties owned by the State.
This legislation was altered by the Decree Law 35/2018 and the Decree Law 42/2021, which establishes that the Fund’s priority mission is to finance investments in classified real estate that are qualified as urgent, taking into account certain factors, such as public access to real estate, the protection of real estate on the UNESCO World Heritage list, the suitability of investments to risk factors and heritage safeguarding needs.
This new policy also stipulates that the Fund’s sources of income will come from European funds, specifically under the “Next Generation EU” financial instruments. In effect, the Safeguarding Fund will play an important role in the operationalisation of the investments planned in the RRP for the requalification of immovable cultural heritage.
