14.6.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 212/9

1.

digitisation and online access to cultural heritage and its long-term preservation are essential to enable access for all to culture and knowledge, promote richness and diversity of European cultural heritage and contribute to the achievement of the digital single market through the increasing offer of new and innovative products and services (1);

2.

Europeana which was launched in 2008 as an online common multilingual access point for digital cultural material (2) and since then connects digital collections of cultural heritage from Member States, has become a common European cultural project for accessing and showcasing European cultural heritage;

3.

further development of Europeana and national policies for digital cultural heritage was supported by the Council (3), the Commission (4) and the European Parliament (5);

4.

reuse of digital heritage was promoted through the inclusion, under certain conditions, of cultural heritage institutions within the scope of the Directive on the reuse of public sector information (6) and by the adoption of the Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works (7);

5.

the Commission’s intention to assess options and consider legislative initiatives to make it easier to digitise out-of-commerce works and make them available online, including across the EU, as part of its announced copyright modernisation initiative (8);

6.

in its current form, Europeana is an internet platform allowing multilingual access to and distribution of digital cultural heritage held by separate cultural heritage institutions. It is also a multi-sided platform (9) that aims to create value for end-users, Member States, cultural heritage institutions, research and creative reuse.

As such, Europeana is currently:

7.

the individual and combined efforts of cultural heritage institutions, Member States and the Commission have led to progress towards the digitisation, online accessibility and (long-term) digital preservation of cultural heritage (12);

8.

digital preservation of world cultural heritage, held in European collections, is important notably in light of the destruction of and threat to cultural heritage in conflict zones;

9.

coordination of efforts through Europeana for the online accessibility of cultural heritage has helped:

10.

connecting digital heritage collections through Europeana also contributes to the following objectives at EU level:

11.

reuse and sharing of content and access to it must be carried out in full compliance with copyright and related rights;

12.

certain technological aspects of the Europeana internet platform, such as semantic interoperability (14), should be enhanced, allowing cultural heritage institutions to connect, and share and update their content and metadata in a flexible, easy and sustainable way;

13.

as one of the entry points to digital cultural heritage, Europeana’s multilingual access point should become more user-friendly, in particular by improving the quality and findability of content and further developing semantic and multilingual search functionalities in line with best available practices;

14.

to better reach and engage end-users, content shared through Europeana needs to be presented in attractive and diverse ways, in particular by involving cultural heritage institutions and third parties as multiple entry and dissemination points, for example through cultural trans-European projects such as the projects on World War I (1914-1918) and the fall of the Iron Curtain and other revolutionary events of 1989;

15.

the governance of Europeana needs to become more inclusive, involving Member States’ governments, the wider network of aggregators and cultural heritage institutions in the setting of strategic priorities and the development of cultural, user-oriented projects on the basis of the available funding; where appropriate, the views of key cultural figures can be taken into account;

16.

there is a continued need for sharing and updating knowledge and identifying common solutions within the network of cultural heritage professionals, including the Europeana Network Association;

17.

the current public funding model (based on grants) does not provide a sufficiently stable basis for sustaining the Europeana investment to date and safeguarding its future quality, availability and reliability for the following reasons:

18.

the cultural and digital innovation value of Europeana should be strengthened through re-envisaging the core service platform under the CEF, focusing on:

It should also be strengthened through the realisation of cultural and user-oriented projects that build on the Europeana infrastructure, and which are to be co-financed under the CEF as generic services with the involvement of cultural heritage institutions and other public and private parties;

19.

make significant strides towards dealing with the challenges ahead as identified in these conclusions;

20.

engage with outstanding issues in existing partner organisations or concerns of potential partner organisations in particular in countries and areas where the project is not yet sufficiently known;

21.

explore possibilities for cooperating with related European initiatives, including in the area of research;

22.

closely involve Member States in the policy- and decision-making. For the Europeana Foundation, this could be organised in particular through participation in the Governing Board of the Member State holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Member State that held the previous Presidency and the Member State that will hold the next Presidency;

23.

have more systematic contacts with Member States, improve and provide permanent access to country- and institution-specific user statistics and improve the accountability on project results and spending;

24.

continue to explore possibilities for raising own income;

25.

by October 2017, to present to the Council an independent evaluation of Europeana and give clear orientations for the mid- and long-term development of Europeana by assessing alternatives at the EU level for the future scope, sustainable funding and governance of Europeana, including a possibility to transform or integrate Europeana into a European legal entity, whilst taking account of the dual nature of Europeana as both a cultural and digital innovation project;

26.

by October 2017, to switch the funding method for the Europeana DSI under the CEF to a combination of procurement and grants. Under this model, EU procurement will fully cover the core service platform to ensure stability and interoperability, whilst EU grants (up to 75 % of eligible costs) will be available for related user-oriented projects (i.e. generic services under the CEF) which Member States can co-fund on a voluntary basis, either directly and/or through participating national organisations;

27.

to set conditions in the procurement procedure for the core service platform requiring the operator to safeguard its character of a public infrastructure and community for culture and digital innovation, in particular by:

28.

ensure that Europeana generic services receiving grants are built on and connected with the core service platform;

29.

by December 2016:

30.

further promote digitisation of cultural heritage collections, as well as the widest possible access and reuse of digital cultural heritage;

31.

put in place or sustain strategies and operational mechanisms such as national and regional aggregators, and encourage online accessibility of high-quality cultural heritage content and metadata from national and regional collections;

32.

encourage cultural heritage institutions to join and support Europeana both by sharing content and metadata, by participating in the Europeana Network Association, and by promotion and dissemination efforts, making use of projects funded by EU grants;

33.

engage in the MSEG as a forum to discuss policies for digital cultural heritage as well as Europeana’s strategy and funding, and aim to ensure coordination between delegates to the MSEG, the CEF committee and the Council preparatory body in the field of culture;

34.

consider supporting Europeana’s activities through voluntary financial contributions to the Europeana Foundation, bearing in mind that such contributions are necessary, until the new procurement-based scheme is put in place and consider thereafter voluntary co-funding of Europeana’s projects funded by EU grants;

35.

promote the value of Europeana as a European cultural project serving the public interest and as a professional network amongst all stakeholders, by also engaging the research and innovation, education, tourism, and creative sectors.