The Committee of the Regions regarded the Raphaël
programme as a welcome medium for local and regional development. It called
for projects supported by the programme to show as a priority the importance
of mutual interaction in the rise of local, regional and national culture in
historical as well as future terms. Projects should also show the importance
of the natural and built environment to people’s well-being in Europe. They should also show that preservation of our
cultural heritage was not just a financial burden; enlivening and utilising
that heritage created, inter alia, new employment opportunities. The
Committee of the Regions was, however, worried about the fact that
environmental issues had been given very little attention in the programme
and it proposed that some heritage sites, which required a great deal of
protection, be excluded from tourist programmes. It also called for
particular attention to be paid to keeping as much of the cultural heritage
alive as possible as an everyday living environment for Europe’s
citizens. Special efforts should also be made to make this heritage
accessible to young people, people with physical, intellectual or sensory
disabilities or impairments and other groups with special needs. The concept
of access to cultural heritage should be given a wider interpretation and
emphasis should be placed on making use of new communication technologies in
order to inform the general public and raise their awareness. The Committee
of the Regions considered that the allocations proposed in the financial
statement were very small. In particular, the Action I measures and the
synergies between these measures and the measures to raise awareness set out
in Action III would require substantial funds.