Website: HEREIN. European Heritage Policies

HEREIN was established by the Council of Europe at the request of the Member States to take stock of the changes in legislation and practices in the participating countries and provide a forum for pooling and sharing information on cultural heritage.

Responding to the specific requests made by Member States at the several Conferences of Ministers responsible for Cultural Heritage, HEREIN is a means of monitoring the implementation of the four Council of Europe Cultural Heritage Conventions:

+ Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (ETS n°121, Granada, 1985)

+ European Convention on the Protection of the Archeological Heritage –revised (ETS n°143, La Valletta, 1992)

+ European Landscape Convention (ETS n°176, Florence, 2000)

+ Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (CETS n°199, Faro, 2005)

Made up of 44 Member States, HEREIN is overseen by the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Lansdcape [CDCPP], responsible for monitoring the Council of Europe programmes and activities and ensuring its compliance with the standards and principles of the Organisation in the field of the heritage.

Besides, structures around a database of European heritage policies, a network of 46 national coordinators and a unique multilingual thesaurus on heritage, HEREIN serves to monitor current trends and challenges for the benefit if the various competent institutions. HEREIN also facilitates cooperation between public administrations through the exchanges, development and dissemination of good practices.

Finally, HEREIN enables the Council of Europe to fulfil its obligations regarding the monitoring of Conventions and cooperation with its Member States in the field of heritage. The project aims at fostering the implementation of heritage projects which are able to improve citizen’s quality of life and living environment.