Kate Pugh, member of the CHCFE Steering Committee was invited to share her expertise at the European Congress of Local Governments held in Krakow, Poland from 4-5 May 2015. The two-day event was attended by more than 1,000 guests from across Europe.

As one of five concurrent sessions, the Congress’ discussion panel “Cultural Policy & Economic Development” took a closer look at culture and creative industries as one of the fastest developing areas of economy. Investments in culture ensure economic development and increase competitiveness in the regions as well as guarantee the intellectual development of society. Furthermore, culture has a positive influence on the attractiveness of cities and regions. Invited panelists presented their views on how to unlock the potential and variety of culture in regions the the strategies regional cultural policy makers should follow.

Speaking on the panel as Chief Executive of The Heritage Alliance, Ms. Pugh focused her address on the historic environment, rather than performing and visual arts described by other contributors. The importance of heritage assets to the tourism industry and more recently the links to the creative and cultural industries, both of which are fast growing sectors in the UK economy. Moreover, she stressed the importance of collecting and managing data to support evidence-based policy making to create a framework in which all stakeholders can thrive and provided the Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe project as once example or providing such evidence. “A European Congress with an audience of 1,000 was exactly the right platform for alerting so many local government leaders from across EU Member States to the importance of gathering evidence of impact, especially in view of the differences noted in the CHCFE report,” says Kate Pugh.

The results of the Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe project will be presented on 12 June in Oslo during the project’s final conference.

DISCUSSION PANEL “Cultural Policy and Economic Development”
5 May 2015 // 18:00 – 19:10 // Krakow, Poland

Moderator:
Jerzy Fedorowicz, Member, Parliament, Poland

Speakers:
Krzysztof Dudek, Director, National Centre for Culture, Poland
Martha Mary Friel, Programme Manager in Tourism and Local Development, Research Center CSS-EBLA, Italy
Valentyna Kovalenko, Chairman, Cherksy Regional Council, Ukraine
Michael Moglia, President of the Committee of Finances, Human Resources, Administration and Communication, Regional Council Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Kate Pugh, Chief Executive, The Heritage Alliance, United Kingdom
Elisabeth Vitouch, President fo the Committee for European and Internatinal Affairs, Vienna Provincial Parliament, Austria

Commentator:
Oskana Prishchepova, President, The Kaliningrad Regional Public Organisation “Woman’s World”, Russia