The EIB Institute has become the first associate member of the European Heritage Alliance, an informal European sectoral platform composed of more than 50 European or international networks and organisations active in the wider field of cultural heritage.

The Institute supports the EIB Group’s activities in the field of cultural heritage,  facilitates the transfer of know-how and experience between different partners and countries to safeguard European cultural heritage and serves as a gateway between the world of cultural heritage and the EIB Group.

The Alliance aims to promote the untapped potential of Europe’s heritage, cultural and natural, immovable and movable. It was launched in June 2011 on occasion of the European Heritage Congress 2011 organised by Europa Nostra in Amsterdam and its members are Europe’s civil society organisations, historic cities and villages, museums, heritage professionals and volunteers, private owners of collections of artefacts, historic buildings and cultural landscapes, educators, town planners…

The European Heritage Alliance thus represents a very large constituency composed of tens of millions of Europe’s citizens with Europa Nostra, Europe’s largest and most representative heritage network, and a long-standing partner of the Institute, acting as its facilitator.

The name of this Alliance refers to the article 3.3. of the consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty of the European Union which stipulates that “[The Union] shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.”