Action Plan for Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership

The Urban Agenda’s Partnership on Culture/Cultural Heritage stems from the conviction that Culture and Cultural Heritage can be important drivers for strengthening the social, ecological and economic assets of European cities. The key concept behind the Partnership's activities is that a conscious, effective, integrated management of urban Cultural Heritage and urban cultural identities can help to improve urban sustainable growth policies in larger metropolitan cities, but also in medium and smallsized towns in Europe. The Partnership considers Culture and Cultural Heritage in the broad sense and explores its ecological, economic and social dimensions: cities and towns of Europe should be viewed as cultural resources requiring preservation and further development. Their potential for sustainable development in line with the Urban Agenda has ecological, economic and social relevance. A systematic, integrated approach that uses the definition of Culture and Cultural Heritage as a starting point to make full use of the social, ecological and economic resources as well as the potential of our urban areas: this includes physical, tangible heritage (such as buildings protected by law, meaningful urban structures, significant urban landscapes, etc.) as well as intangible heritage such as local know-how and cultural identities.

The Action Plan develops Actions supporting the use, knowledge, and preservation of physical heritage with intangible assets (creative and artistic, traditional and innovative) expressed by local social and economic communities, as established by the UNESCO convention of 2003 on Intangible Heritage. The Plan includes Actions aimed at supporting cultural and creative businesses, also through the management of urban cultural services, and the reuse of urban heritage, including buildings and open spaces, proposing an "extended" use of urban spaces and services present in the cities. Against this background, the Partnership on Culture/Cultural Heritage intends to focus on these three key issues, taking into account interdependencies – such as multilevel governance – and formulating results with reference to the three pillars of Better Regulation, Better Funding and Better Knowledge according to the Pact of Amsterdam. With this perspective, the field of Actions to enhance urban Cultural Heritage extends towards the integration of the environment, tourism and recreational activities, actively interacting with interventions aimed at promoting the city.