On the occasion of Europe Day 2021, Europa Nostra – in association with other 50 member organisations of the European Heritage Alliance, which celebrates this year its 10th anniversary – launches a wide call to organise inspiring and engaging citizens debates on the future of Europe in cultural heritage sites across Europe in 2021 and 2022. This grassroots initiative is a meaningful contribution both to the Conference on the Future of Europe and to the New European Bauhaus, of which Europa Nostra and some other members of the European Heritage Alliance are proud official partners.

Europa Nostra, together with its members and partners, is more than ever convinced that Europe’s shared cultural heritage is a powerful catalyst for the future of Europe. It is a unique and essential vector for the success of the Conference on the Future of Europe and for the designing of a more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful common future. In this respect, heritage sites, both in urban and rural areas, provide ideal settings for citizens to express their imaginative ideas on the future of Europe.

The objectives of this initiative are to:

• Engage cultural heritage stakeholders and citizens to discuss the future of Europe;

• Demonstrate that cultural heritage has a unique role to play in the co-designing and shaping of our common future;

• Prove that Europe’s heritage sites provide inspiring settings to combine professional expertise with citizens’ engagement.

Faced with unprecedented challenges on many levels, the European Union has launched, for the very first time, two major initiatives largely based on the participation of citizens, namely the Conference on the Future of Europe and the New European Bauhaus.

The Conference on the Future of Europe, officially launched on 9 May 2021, aims to involve European citizens in a series of debates and discussions to define the future priorities of the European project. Via an interactive multilingual digital platform, citizens can debate, endorse and comment on key topics, including culture and cultural heritage. European, national, regional and local authorities as well as civil society and other organisations are also encouraged to organise and share events on the platform so as to involve as many people as possible.

The New European Bauhaus, which was launched by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in September 2020, aims at bringing the European Green Deal closer to citizens and their living spaces by bridging the world of science and technology with the world of art and culture. This initiative aims at bringing together citizens, experts and institutions to imagine our collective future around the core values of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusiveness.