Doc. 10526

26 April 2005

A series of travelling exhibitions of major European works of art

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mr Zingeris and others

1.       The cultural heritage is part of the individual identity of regions and countries, but is also the mosaic that constitutes Europe’s cultural diversity

2.       The series of Council of Europe art exhibitions and European museum awards as well as the series of European Union cultural capitals are excellent examples of ways in which both institutions are drawing public attention to this shared diversity. The organisation of the European Heritage Days is already established as a joint exercise to draw attention to the built heritage.

3.       The Third Council of Europe Summit is an ideal moment to launch a new joint initiative to underline the common commitment of the European Union and Council of Europe to a Europe without dividing lines in the cultural field and to remind especially the new democracies of their belonging to a shared cultural tradition. It is an occasion for political endorsement to the democratisation of cultural exchanges and to the place this has in the unification of Europe.

4.       The Parliamentary Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers initiates a comprehensive series of travelling exhibitions of national art treasures.

5.       These exhibitions should be put together by governments in cooperation with major institutions; the series should be sponsored by the European Union and by independent sources of funding; it should be coordinated jointly by the European Union and the Council of Europe.

6.       The exhibitions themselves should involve real and emblematic objects, selected on a case by case basis for exhibition in different locations throughout Europe and where possible should be organised on a reciprocal basis.

7.       In the first instance they could bring pieces of European art to the former communist countries that have lost their own heritage or have been cut off from access to such collections. The exhibitions may also develop as a means of showing largely unknown cultural masterpieces from these countries to the wider European public.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed ¹:

ZINGERIS, Emanuelis, Lithuania, EDG

ČEKUOLIS, Jonas, Lithuania, LDR

CILEVIČS, Boriss, Latvia, SOC

FRUNDA, György, Romania, EPP/CD

HOOPER, Gloria, United Kingdom, EDG

IWIŃSKI, Tadeusz, Poland, SOC

JAŘAB, Josef, Czech Republic, LDR

LEGENDRE, Jacques, France, EPP/CD

MARGELOV, Mikhail, Russia, EDG

McNAMARA, Kevin, United Kingdom, SOC

OLIYNYK, Boris, Ukraine, UEL

SEVERINSEN, Hanne, Denmark, LDR

TOSHEV, Latchezar, Bulgaria, EPP/CD

VAREIKIS, Egidijus, Lithuania, EPP/CD

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group