The EU comes to the rescue of European architectural heritage

After the fire in Notre-Dame de Paris in April 2019, an appeal was launched to revitalise European heritage protection policies.

To preserve or restore heritage, European funding has been regularly mobilised, in particular through the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Creative Europe programme and the ERDF, the European Regional Development Fund, since the 1970s. For example, the latter fund made it possible to restore the Pompeii site, which had been damaged by exposure to air, light and humidity.

The dangers facing Europe’s heritage are many today: threats of demolition, obsolescence, pollution, climate change, modern buildings in historic centres….Since 2013, every two years, the NGO Europa Nostra has published a list of the seven sites considered to be the most threatened in Europe, with the support of the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank. An initiative that makes it possible to mobilize the actors necessary for the conservation of this heritage.

The European Union is trying to raise public awareness of this issue. In recent years, several groups of young volunteers of the European Solidarity Corps have carried out missions to safeguard cultural heritage, for example in areas affected by earthquakes in Italy.