Croatia signing the Declaration of cooperation on advancing the digitisation of cultural heritage

Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Minister for Culture of Croatia, signed today in Brussels the Declaration of cooperation on advancing the digitisation of cultural heritage with Claire Bury, Deputy Director General of DG Connect. The Declaration was launched during the Digital Day last 9 April, and to date it has been signed by 26 EU States and Norway.

The Declaration has three pillars of action:

• A pan-European initiative for 3D digitisation of cultural heritage artefacts, monuments and sites;
• Re-use of digitised cultural resources to foster citizen engagement, innovative use and spill-overs in other sectors;
• Enhancing cross-sector and cross-border cooperation and capacity building in the sector of digitised cultural heritage.

Croatia joins the Declaration at a crucial moment, in which the Commission is already working on implementing it, and it has also initiated the evaluation of the main EU policy instrument in the area of digital for cultural heritage (Recommendation 2011/711/EU). Croatia has included cultural heritage as a priority of its upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union, and it can play an important role in the implementation of the Declaration and the revision of the Recommendation.