The purpose of this proposal for a decision by the European Parliament and Council is to set up a Community action programme in the field of cultural heritage (RAPHAEL programme) for the period from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2000 with a total budget of ECU 67 million.
The RAPHAEL programme covers both the movable and immovable cultural heritage, the archaeological and sub-aquatic heritage, museums, collections and archives. It includes 5 actions:
- upgrading and extending the influence of the cultural heritage:
. support for projects to conserve the movable cultural heritage ("European heritage laboratories") such as monuments or sites of exemplary value (European commemorative sites),
. support for "European heritage sites" working on a common theme linked to the conservation of the movable/immovable cultural heritage,
. support for the development of "standards" or recommendations with a view to improving good heritage conservation and management practices (e.g. recommendations on protecting objects or monuments from fire),
. encouraging joint management of major works of art,
. developing complementary cultural studies;
- networks and partnerships:
. support for networking of "European heritage sites" (association of persons in charge of sites),
. collection and dissemination of specialised information on practices and systems in the field of culture in the Member States (guides, manuals, etc.),
. support for trans-national projects between museums and/or monuments using multimedia (in order to show a specific monument in a country to visitors in relation to similar monuments in other Member States),
. support for cooperation projects between specialist heritage training institutes or research centres (dissemination of information, system of exchanges etc.);
- access for citizens to common heritage through awareness-raising campaigns with a European dimension (e.g. "European heritage days", events prepared as part of the festival of Europe etc.) and support for projects to apply multilingualism in museums or modern information technologies to improve public access to the heritage;
- innovation, further training and mobility of professionals:
. support in identifying research requirements,
. support in organising seminars and exchange or training projects for professionals in the sector;
- cooperation with third countries and international organisations in order to create synergisms, especially with the Council of Europe.
The Commission will be assisted in implementing the programme by the advisory committee for which provision is made in the KALEIDOSCOPE programme and must ensure that projects are consistent with other Community programmes and policies in this field.�