Heritage sites outside the European Union could for the first time join the bloc’s flagship heritage scheme, under a proposal published by the European Commission on 23 October.
The draft decision would replace the European Heritage Label with a European Heritage List, on which selected sites would hold European Heritage status. Every site that already holds the label would carry over. The scheme currently covers 80 sites in 23 countries, all of them EU members.
Under the proposal, participation would be open to EFTA states in the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), to candidate countries, and to potential candidates for EU membership.
The draft ties participation to association with the Creative Europe programme or its successors. Britain falls into none of these groups, so on the draft’s wording, its sites would not qualify.
Non-EU countries would not apply directly to Brussels. Each must notify the Commission formally and appoint a national coordinator. It then runs its own national selection and may put forward up to two sites per cycle.
Application forms, in English only, are due by 1 February of the selection year. The proposal also lets sites from these countries join a transnational application, whatever the lead partner’s nationality.
From there the route follows the one for EU members. A panel of 12 independent experts, nominated by EU institutions, first shortlists applications on “European significance”. It then assesses the survivors’ action plans and operating capacity. The Commission formally designates the winners, taking the panel’s recommendation into account, and the panel’s opinion is final.
The cap on non-EU winners is tight. The panel could pick no more than one site per country and no more than 15 in total per cycle.
Parliament and the Council must agree on the text under the ordinary legislative procedure. The existing rules would still govern the 2027 selection. The proposal’s calendar lists selection years of 2027, 2029, 2031 and so on, so 2029 would be the first round under the new rules, if the text is adopted in time.
