2018 was the European Year of Cultural Heritage and it was a key topic during the 7th EUSDR Annual Forum, held in Sofia October 2018, as Bulgaria`s rotating Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) came to an end. Thematic panels of the conference focused on the development and conservation of cultural heritage, sustainable tourism, security in public spaces and EU macro-regional strategies.
The event was attended by more than 900 participants, including partners from the European Foundation for Education and Foundation Knowledge at Work. Strengthening regional competencies through cultural heritage is one of the main specific objectives of PRO-YOUTH, thus the event provided a good opportunity to learn more about the experiences of participants working on related projects.
Following the conference, the Ministers responsible for Tourism adopted a Joint Statement on Development of Tourism and Cultural heritage in the Danube region, encouraging cooperation and exchange of best practices between regions. They also underlined the importance of investing in human capital in the tourism sector:
“We firmly believe that qualified staff is a crucial element for the development of sustainable tourism and therefore call upon all stakeholders to further invest in human capital in the sector. In this context, the added value of the employment dimension of the Strategy should be particularly stressed, also by linking it with the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the compass for a renewed process of upward convergence towards better working and living conditions in the European Union.”
Cultural heritage remains an area of priority in the EU and the Commission has developed 10 thematic initiatives in order to guarantee that the outputs of the European Year of Cultural Heritage will result in policy actions. Learn more about the initiatives here.
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