The European Year of Cultural Heritage and Europe's Vision of Culture

Abstract

The multiplicity of ideas, events, projects and services activated on the occasion of the designation of 2018 as the European Year of Cultural Heritage is the natural point of arrival of twenty years - in particular the last three years - of intense activity of the European institutions with regard to culture. An important path, of great openness and awareness of the value of cultural heritage in the economic and social development of the European Union and of the countries that are part of it. But this vision has not yet entered fully into the strategic documents of Brussels, and is not accompanied by adequate economic resources to transform cultural action in lever to get out of the economic, emotional stagnation of the European continent. The study examines the actions that the main public institutions of the Union have adopted towards culture and heritage in the last decade (first paragraph), then describe in detail the characteristics of the European Year and the actions launched (second paragraph) and, finally, summarizes the issues that still remain to be addressed in order to make cultural heritage a real factor for social and economic change and growth (third paragraph).