The Directorate participates regularly in EU projects, for example RANE in the Interreg III B programme. RANE was a cooperation project on rock art in the Nordic countries and Russia. Photo © Directorate for Cultural Heritage

The EEA Agreement governs Norway’s compliance with the EU’s body of regulations. Therefore it is vital that the Directorate closely monitors the provisions that affect our sector. When directives of relevance to the sector are under preparation, we are in a position to express our opinions.

One example of this is the EU Directive “Biocidal Products 98/8/EC”. The directive’s requirements on the declaration of content were suited to large-scale industrial production but were impossible to comply with in the case of traditional kiln-burned tar. The legislative act would have entailed traditionally-produced pine tar no longer being permitted for use on our stave churches. Cultural heritage protection interests rallied, and a joint Nordic research project culminated in the removal of pine tar from the list of active substances in this directive.

EU programmes
The EEA Agreement also gives Norway access to several of the same sources of finance as the EU countries. A number of EU programmes are relevant for the Norwegian cultural heritage sector, in particular the EU’s Culture Programme. The main goal of this programme is to contribute to creating a common European cultural arena by developing partnerships among practitioners of the various arts and cultural institutions in the participating countries. Cultural heritage is one of several prioritised areas covered by the programme. Other European programmes of relevance to our sector are the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the Interreg Programme, the Lifelong Learning Programme, the Youth in Action Programme and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (digitalisation of cultural heritage).

In 2007 the European Commission for the first time adopted its own cultural agenda: “A European agenda for culture in a globalizing world”. Here it is emphasised that culture remains the responsibility of the member states but that the EU wishes to promote greater stimulation of the cultural sector.

Cooperation and standardisation
The Directorate also cooperates with its European colleagues outside the formal EU institutions. The heads of the cultural heritage authorities in Europe meet annually at a forum called the European Heritage Heads Forum (EHHF).

In the legal policy area the Directorate participates in the European Heritage Legal Forum (EHLF) which monitors EU legislation closely to avoid negative impacts on our ability to manage cultural heritage, and to prepare the cultural heritage sector for new directives and legislative acts.

Through cooperation with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN TC 346 Conservation of Cultural Property) efforts are being made to achieve uniform methods related to cultural values. New standards will result in uniform approaches and comparable methods of measurement.

Some examples are:

• Work on the standardisation of methods of measuring paint (on surfaces).
• Specifications on the state of preservation of documents.
• Assessment of the condition of buildings.