ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF HISTORIC TOWNS & REGIONS 2002-2003
Report of the Secretary General
1. Introduction
1.1. This Annual Report covers the period April 2002 to August 2003. It follows on from the Annual Report presented to the last General Assembly in March 2002 and includes the content of an interim report circulated to Bureau members in November 2002. This report will be distributed to all members and posted on the EAHTR website.
2. Conference Programme.
2.1. Both 2002 and 2003 has seen the delivery of an interesting and successful programme of conferences in partnership with other organisations. Our policy of working in partnership has proved effective in enabling EAHTR to cover a wider range of topics, attract a greater number of participants and secure a wider geographical spread than would otherwise have been the case.
2.2. The conference programme has resulted in a number of important policy declarations and proposed actions by member associations, which are summarised below.
· International Symposium on Cultural Heritage – Kazan 20th –23rd June 2002. This was EAHTR’s main event in 2002 organised jointly with the Council of Europe and the City of Kazan. It led to the adoption of the “Kazan Declaration”, dealing with the policy changes required at International, National and Local Government levels to recognise the importance of cultural diversity in historic cities as a key to a sustainable future. The declaration is set out in Appendix 1.
· “Investing in Heritage – Regenerating Europe’s Historic Cities” – Newcastle upon Tyne, 3rd – 5th July 2002. This conference was organised jointly with the Grainger Town Project, Newcastle City Council and other organisations. The President made a presentation to the conference dinner and the Secretary General presented a report on EAHTR and proposals for the European group of cities called INHERIT. The conclusions of this conference are set out in Appendix 2 and led to a proposal to establish “INHERIT” under the auspices of EAHTR. The work of INHERIT and the involvement of EAHTR is set out later in this report.
· Participation in the 12th International Symposium of the Walled Towns Friendship Circle, Soave, Italy, 27th - 31st August 2002. This symposium explored a wide range of issues facing principally smaller historic towns where fortifications play an important part in the identity of the town. The symposium led to a resolution for the WTFC and EAHTR to work together and organise a joint conference in the future.
· “The Wooden Town through the Centuries” Porvoo, Finland 15th – 16th May 2003. This conference was organised in conjunction with the Finnish Association of Historic Towns. It was a specialised workshop with representation mainly from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. It was an important conference for the Finnish Association of Historic Towns Finland and its conclusions formed the basis of the future work programme for the association.
The Conference agreed a Declaration summarising the overall conclusions reached. This is set out at Appendix 3 and confirms the importance of wooden heritage in preserving the identity of relevant historic towns particularly in Northern Europe. It also sets out an action program for the Finnish Association including producing advice on regeneration guidelines for both Finnish and other historic towns.
· Regeneration of Historic Urban Cores; - learning from experience,” 13th – 15th April 2003, Malta. EAHTR was a partner with INTA and the Maltese Ministry of Environment in developing and promoting this conference. The Secretary General presented a key- note paper, chaired a workshop and contributed to the final conference declaration set out in Appendix 4. This was a well-attended conference with delegates from wider afield than Europe including Egypt and America.
· “Governance of Cultural Heritage” promoted jointly with the Turkish Association of Historic Towns, The Council of Europe and UNESCO 30th – 31st May in Bursa, Turkey. This conference celebrated the 3rd Anniversary of the Turkish Association whose membership has now reached a hundred historic towns. The conference was hosted by the city of Bursa and supported by the Turkish Government. With several government ministers attending.
The conference agreed the Bursa 2003 declaration - see Appendix 5. This declaration covers the importance of the historic and natural environment being protected within new Turkish legislation currently being drafted. It stresses the need for government, national and local, to share its responsibilities with all agencies active in this field and to develop mechanisms for involving the whole community in decision making. Lastly, the conference endorsed an action plan for the protection and regeneration of historic cities within Turkey.
3. Council of Europe
3.1. The EAHTR Bureau meeting of 7th February 2003 welcomed the report that the Council of Europe had agreed to formalise links with EAHTR and to establish a budget line within the CLRAE to support its activities to take effect in January 2004. CLRAE has indicated its wish to use EAHTR to contribute to aspects of its Sustainable Development Committee workload.
3.2. The Secretary General presented a report on EAHTR’s activities to the Spring Session of the CLRAE Culture and Education Committee and Standing Committee in March 2003. The meeting resolved to help EAHTR develop its membership and to explore opportunities for EAHTR to contribute to the committee’ work on cultural heritage.
4. Europa Nostra
4.1. The President and Secretary General attended the Europa Nostra conference in Strasbourg to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The Secretary General presented a report to the Europa Nostra Council outlining the potential opportunities for closer collaboration between the two organisations. The Council agreed, subject to confirmation by the EAHTR Bureau and General Assembly, the following; -
· To explore reciprocal membership with representation on EAHTR Bureau and Europa Nostra Council.
· Further development of the Europa Nostra award scheme to support the work of historic cities within the architectural heritage category with EAHTR becoming involved in ways to be discussed further.
· Joint working on European projects.
· Organisation of a joint conference every 3rd year.
5. Secretariat Support to Member Associations and Cities.
Information Dissemination
5.1. The Secretariat has continued to receive a wide range of inquiries from historic towns from both members and non -members. A regular feature of 2002 –3 has been the promotion of conferences, that EAHTR has been involved with as a partner, to all relevant contacts within our historic cities database.
5.2. Development of the database - currently approximately 2,500 contacts covering associations, historic towns, universities and other relevant organisations - and keeping it up to date is an important ongoing task critical to the development of our role in communicating effectively and disseminating information to historic towns across Europe. In addition to conferences we have used the database to, for example, promote involvement of historic cities in the Europa Nostra Award scheme.
5.3. Promotion and dissemination of information is now virtually completely carried out by e-mail. We are developing an information service on European Funding from already published sources and have begun by circulating information from the Culture 2000 UK contact point to English historic cities and a general update on the availability of relevant European Funding opportunities to all members of EAHTR.
Visits by Member Associations
5.4. A new development currently being worked on is facilitating historic town visits. Two visits are currently at the planning stage; -
· A visit to Slovenia by the English Historic Towns Forum. The Secretary General of the Slovenian Association of Historic Towns has prepared an itinerary and this visit is planned for June 2004.
· A visit by the Finnish Association of Historic Towns to England. The English Historic Towns Forum has agreed to host this visit which is planned for April 2004.
Member Meetings
5.5. The Secretary General facilitated a meeting between the Slovenian Association of Historic Towns and the English National Trust to discuss the work of the trust, how it is organised and the potential for creating a similar organisation in Slovenia.
5.6. The Secretary General met with the Maltese Association of Historic Towns in April 2003. As a consequence of this meeting the Secretary General wrote to the Director General of the Maltese Planning Authority suggesting a joint project to prepare guidelines for the regeneration for the smaller towns within Malta.
5.7. A similar meeting was held with the Finnish Association of Historic Towns where the Secretary General outlined the work of EAHTR and discussed with the Association its future plans and priorities and ways in which EAHTR can continue to support their activities.
5.8. The Secretary General is a seconded member of the English Historic Towns Forum Executive Committee and has agreed to help raise the profile of EHTF in Europe by, for example, arranging for the Forum to present a paper at the Malta conference in April 2003 and facilitating the historic towns visits set out above.
6. INHERIT
6.1. The INHERIT group of cities was established following the conference held in Newcastle upon Tyne in July 2002 on the subject of “Investing in Heritage - regenerating Europe’s historic cities”. 4 ‘heritage’ cities attended the first meeting of INHERIT in Paris in February 2003. The initial members are Newcastle, Gothenburg, Verona and Belfast. All 4 cities have paid an initial subscription of €2000 each as a contribution to EAHTR’s administrative costs in co-ordinating the work of the group and it’s outputs. Gothenburg, Verona and Belfast have now become associate members of EAHTR as a consequence of joining INHERIT. Newcastle upon Tyne had already joined as an Associate member in 2002.
6.2. The initial work of INHERIT is to examine the approach taken by each city in regenerating the city through investing in cultural heritage. The next meeting of the group will take place in Verona on the 29th of August and will agree a framework methodology for the work and explore a potential application for European funding under the INTERREG III C programme. The deadline for submission is Spring 2004 and this will provide an opportunity to expand the group, as 5 countries need to participate under the INTERREG III C criteria.
7. European Projects
ITEACH/TECHNE Network of Excellence
7.1. EAHTR is an associate partner in a potentially successful 6th Framework bid with Universities called ITEACH. Final negotiations will take place with the EU in September. This is a large network of over a hundred partners led by the Universities of Brighton (an Associate member of EAHTR) and Florence.
7.2. The project relates to the use of new technologies in the field of cultural heritage covering the full range of possibilities from use of technology in the protection of the physical fabric through to the use of the new technologies in interpretation of cultural heritage for tourism purposes. EAHTR’s role will be to represent in part ‘user’ interests on the managing board. It is envisaged at this stage that this will involve the Secretary General attending approximately 2 board meetings a year for 3 years. Member opportunities to become involved in the project will be assessed as the project develops.
CULT – STRAT Specific Targeted Research Project
7.3. EAHTR is also an associate partner in another smaller 6th Framework project that was also selected for final negotiations in September. Cult – Strat stands for Assessment of Air Pollution Effects on Cultural Heritage – Management Strategies and has 9 research partners from Sweden, Norway, U.K, France, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic and Spain. This is a research project specifically targeted at research the European Commission wishes to see carried out and quite tightly specified by them.
7.4. The project will subcontract to EAHTR to facilitate the participation of the end user community in the evaluation of management strategies relating to air quality and its effect on cultural heritage. The final product of the project will be a reference volume summarising all the findings for the end users, which EAHTR will also help to evaluate. EAHTR will help disseminate and implement the overall research findings of the project and build into its conference programme an opportunity each year for participants to contribute to the development of the project.
7.5. The overall amount of funding is still to be finalised but it is envisaged that EAHTR will receive €20,000 in total. This intended to cover the administrative and technical costs of the subcontract including additional staff time required and travel and subsistence costs - on the basis that we will respond in a flexible way to the needs of the project as it develops.
Other European Project Bids
7.6. EAHTR submitted two ‘accompanying measures’ bids called FRESH and FORUM in 2002 but despite enthusiastic support from the academic community they were not prioritised for funding by the European Commission. EAHTR also participated in two bids by members - Malta on tourism development and the Czech Republic’s bid to administer the European Cultural Award Scheme, neither of which were selected for funding.
8. Membership and Sponsorship
Full Membership
8.1. The Slovenian Association of Historic Towns joined EAHTR in April 2002 bringing the total of full member Associations to 12 representing some 908 towns and regions.
Associate Membership
8.2. The cities of Gothenburg and Nykoping, Sweden, Verona, Italy and Belfast, Northern Ireland have joined as Associate Members
Universities
8.3. In line with the resolution of the last General Assembly a campaign to recruit universities as associate members was launched in 2002. Although 40 universities were approached we have had a limited response. It would appear that the structure of Universities means that they do not tend to join organisations as an institution, but rather it is left to individual researchers to justify joining a network from their departmental budgets.
8.4. There should be new opportunities to attract researchers as a result of working with the ITEACH and CULT-STRAT European projects. However, it may be that we have set the university associate membership at too high a rate given the focus needed towards individual researchers and proposals are included below aimed at addressing this problem.
Expanding Membership