EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/75

(2004/C 78 E/0074)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2084/03

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(24 June 2003)

Subject: 1970 Unesco Convention

Does the Commission consider that Member States have taken adequate measures to comply with the 1970 Unesco Convention on illicit trafficking of cultural property?

If not, will the Commission draw the failure to comply to the attention of the recalcitrant States?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(30 September 2003)

With regard to the relationship between Member States and third countries, the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Convention maintains its importance as the main legal instrument at universal level aimed at fighting the illicit traffic in cultural goods. Currently, nine Member States and eight Acceding States are parties to the Convention, while its ratification is being examined in a number of other Member States. Recent accession by three Member States in 2003 shows that awareness as to the need to combat illicit trafficking in cultural goods is increasing, as well as acceptance of the Convention, which has now reached the number of 100 States Parties.

Within the specific context of the Union-Africa Dialogue, the ‘Return of Stolen and Illicitly Exported Cultural Goods’ has been one of the priority themes since the Cairo Action Plan. In November 2002, the Union-Africa Ministerial Meeting in Ouagadougou endorsed a set of guiding principles and concrete recommendations for action in this area. In its recent Communication on the Union-Africa Dialogue (1), the Commission outlined a series of measures to support the dialogue on cultural goods, which also include adherence by all countries in the Union and Africa to the relevant international conventions, in particular the 1970 Unesco Convention, and support to Unesco's activities in the context of the 1970 Convention.

In addition to creating a diplomatic mechanism for the return of stolen cultural goods, the 1970 Unesco Convention contains a number of obligations for States Parties to foster protective and capacity-building measures within their territories, such as the development of museums structures and inventories or the implementation of educational programmes. The Commission, for its part, has already undertaken capacity-building activities in the area of cultural goods within its external aid programmes; the possibility of supporting a concrete project in the context of the Union-Africa Dialogue on cultural goods is currently being examined.

It was deemed necessary to adopt measures at Community level as this protection could not be adequately guaranteed via the ratification of the 1970 Unesco Convention on the measures to be adopted to prohibit and prevent the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural goods. However, since 1 January 1993, with the abolition of physical checks at the Community's internal borders, there has been a need for additional measures for the completion of the internal market in order to provide supplementary means of ensuring adequate protection for cultural goods.

In the context of the operation of the single market, Regulation (EEC) No 3911/92 (2) and Directive 93/7/EEC (3) seek to reconcile the fundamental principle of free movement of cultural goods with that of the protection of national treasures.

The Regulation introduces uniform controls for the prevention of exports of cultural goods at the external borders of the Community, which allow the competent (Culture and Customs) authorities of the Member States from which the cultural goods are to be exported to a third country to take the interests of the other Member States into account. This is because, in the absence of such controls, abolishing checks at the physical borders within the Community would have meant that a national treasure unlawfully removed from a Member State could be presented at a customs office of another Member State and exported easily to a third country.

Directive 93/7/EEC complements Regulation (EEC) No 3911/92 by providing for administrative cooperation mechanisms between Member States as regards their national treasures in the context of the internal market, and a procedure for restoring national treasures when these have been unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State. While the aim of the Regulation is to avoid national treasures being taken out of Community territory without controls, the Directive, for its part, deals with the arrangements for restoring such treasures to the Member State of origin when they have been unlawfully removed from it.

The Commission reviews implementation by Member States of the Community instruments referred to above and produces a report every three years. The latest report was issued on 25 May 2000 (4).

(1) COM(2003) 316 final.

(2) Council Regulation (EEC) No 3911/92 of 9 December 1992 on the export of cultural goods, OJ L 395, 31.12.1992.

(3) Council Directive 93/7/EEC of 15 March 1993 on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State, OJ L 74, 27.3.1993.

(4) COM(2000) 325 final.