Outcomes of the 5th Partnership meeting of the Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership

On the 20 and 21 April, the Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership held its 5th meeting, which resulted in fruitful exchanges and clear points on implementation.

Action Leaders were encouraged to aim for draft results of the 11 Actions by June. The value of having active partners was emphasised, as well as the possibility of creating possible interlinkages between Actions. It was concluded that cross-sectoral cooperation was necessary to create an impactful message and recommendations.

Day 1

The two-day meeting was opened by the Coordinators (Sandra Gizdulich, Giovanni Pineschi - Italian Agency for Territorial Cohesion, and Gabriele Kautz, Jan Schultheiß- German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community), who introduced the objectives of the meeting and brought to attention that the Partnership’s main challenge resides in identifying implementation opportunities.

On the first day, participants were divided into two break-out sessions to discuss implementation and state of play of the Actions. The first group discussed Actions related to social interactions and participatory processes, while the second group covered Actions regarding integrated planning and territorial and environmental aspects.

Participants also discussed possible interlinkages between the Actions and how to create possible synergies. The need for cross-sectoral cooperation was emphasised and participants suggested that the Partnership message and recommendations would be more powerful and impactful if shared by all Actions.

Day 2

The second day of the meeting focused on discussing ways to ensure sustainability of the Partnership’s work and on sharing of lessons learned from other Urban Agenda Partnerships. For the latter, the Coordinators of the Partnerships on Inclusion on Migrants and Refugees and Public Procurement presented their experiences and discussed with the audience on ways to ensure sustainability of the work carried out.

Questions were raised on what the Partnership should do at the European level to capitalise on the previous work. In terms of the timetable, the overall goal is to provide a draft of the Actions’ outcomes by June. The Partnership also mentioned the value of having active partners since it strengthens the Partnership's efficiency to accomplish goals.

The discussion then moved on to the New European Bauhaus (NEB) and the potential contributions of the Partnership, i.e. become a partner and submit an input paper to contribute to the NEB design phase.

Next steps

The next Partnership meeting of the Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership will take place on 31 May and 1 June. During this meeting, the preliminary outputs of the Actions will be presented.