The value of cultural heritage is precious for the society, and cultural heritage rights are fundamental rights, Croatian Culture Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek said in Brussels on Tuesday.

The right of everyone to take part in cultural life, including the ability to access and enjoy cultural heritage is guaranteed by many international conventions, resolutions and other basic documents of organizations, including the European Union, and in Croatia the Constitution and the Law on the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Assets provide for that law, Minister Obuljen-Korzinek said at the EU’s meeting of ministers of culture and audiovisual media content.

The EU member-states’ ministers, who took part in the Culture Affairs Council meeting under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, discussed the protection and promotion of heritage rights and sustainable heritage management in Europe.

Obuljen-Korzinek recalled that the war destruction of the Croatian Adriatic city of Dubrovnik in 1991 and 1992 was the first example in which an international war crimes tribunal convicted the perpetrators also for the destruction of cultural heritage.

The wartime commanders of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), who were found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of the war crimes committed in Dubrovnik, were found guilty also on the counts of the destruction of and willful damage to a number of historical and cultural sites located in the Old Town of Dubrovnik, inscribed on the List of World Heritage since 1979. This Judgement illustrates clearly how destruction of, and damage to, world heritage sites under the 1972 UNESCO Convention can be sanctioned under international humanitarian law.

High quality architecture and New European Bauhaus

The minister also adopted conclusions on high quality architecture and New European Bauhaus concerning architecture and the built environment as embodiments of past and present culture.

Croatia has appointed the Regional Energy Agency for Northwestern Croatia (REGEA) to be the contact point for the New European Bauhaus project.

Increasing availability and competitiveness of European audiovisual and media content

The ministers also concluded that the European audiovisual and media sectors had suffered greatly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As the availability of European audiovisual and media content is fundamental for the health of the European media sector, the Council has approved conclusions to provide guidelines on how to guarantee that European content becomes more widely available. Proposed actions include encouraging the greater availability of original content in different language versions, promoting efficient marketing tools and film audience strategies, improving and facilitating the discoverability of creative content online in all EU languages and encouraging an increase in the volume of European audiovisual works in on-demand catalogues,” the EU reported.

The Slovenian Minister for Culture, Vasko Simoniti,  was quoted as saying that “every day, EU citizens enjoy watching excellent European series, movies and TV programs. Still, the pandemic and other trends weigh heavily on the European audiovisual and media sector. That is why we have agreed on measures to boost the sector and make European content from different countries and in different languages more widely available.”