European Commission

The European Year aimed to foster a society that sustains and develops quality of life, including quality of skills and employment, social well-being, including the well-being of children, and equal opportunities for all. It recognised that social exclusion damages the well-being of citizens, hampering their ability to express themselves and to participate in society. The problem of poverty and social exclusion relates to a large number of factors, such as income and living standards, the need for educational and decent work opportunities, effective social protection systems, housing, access to good quality health and other services, as well as active citizenship.
In line with the analysis carried out and the priorities identified in the Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion, the European Year should focus, among others, on the following themes: ensuring equal access to adequate resources and services, including decent accommodation, health and social protection; and facilitating access to culture and leisure opportunities.

In June 2008, the “European Pact on Mental Health and Well-being”, an intersectoral statement on mental health action in Europe, was launched at the High Level Conference “Together for Mental Health and Well-Being” by the European Commissioner for Health. The document acknowledged the importance and relevance of mental health and well-being for the European Union, its Member States, stakeholders and citizens. They called for action in five priority areas: 1 - Prevention of Depression and Suicide; 2 - Mental Health in Youth and Education; 3- Mental Health in Workplace Settings; 4 - Mental Health of Older People; 5 - Combating Stigma and Social Exclusion. The 2nd priority area, Mental Health in Youth and Education also invites policy makers and stakeholders to promote the participation of young people in education, culture, sport and employment.
The Pact brings together European institutions, Member States, stakeholders from relevant sectors, including people at risk of exclusion for mental health reasons, and the research community to support and promote mental health and well-being. It is a reflection of their commitment to a longer-term process of exchange, cooperation and coordination on key challenges. The Pact should facilitate the monitoring of trends and activities in Member States and among stakeholders. Based on European best practice, it should help deliver recommendations for action for progress in addressing its priority themes.

The 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue was established by Decision N° 1983/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (18 December 2006). The aim of the Year was to put across a clear message that Europeʼs great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. The initiative encouraged all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from different cultural traditions. It enabled the EU to make its voice better heard in the world and to forge effective partnerships with countries in its neighbourhood, thus extending a zone of stability, democracy and common prosperity beyond the EU, and thereby increasing the well-being and security of European citizens and all those living in the EU. The European Year was linked to a variety of national initiatives, including some from the healthcare system, such as the Irish Minister for Health, which launched a National Intercultural Health Strategy to promote greater access and inclusion of ethnic minority communities, migrants and asylum seekers to the health service.

The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 paved the way to a barrier-free Europe, fostering actions supported also by EU funds to make a difference for the life of approximately 87 million persons having some form of disability in the EU. However, persons with disabilities still face considerable barriers in access to healthcare, education, employment, recreation activities, as well as in participation in political life. This Strategy aims to improve the lives of persons with disabilities in the coming decade, in the EU and beyond.
The objectives of this Strategy can only be reached through coordinated action at both national and EU level, with a strong commitment from Member States and regional and local authorities to deliver on the actions proposed by the Commission. The Strategy has a special chapter about improving access to art and culture, recreation, leisure, sport, and tourism. Accessible and inclusive art and culture, sport, leisure, recreational activities, and tourism are essential for full participation in society. The strategy explicitly acknowledges that they increase wellbeing and give everyone, including persons with disabilities, the opportunity to develop and utilise their potential.
According to the strategy document, the Commission invites the European Parliament and the Council to work together and to lead by example in achieving implementation of the UNCRPD both at EU and national levels.

The overall aim of this Strategy is to empower people with disabilities so that they can enjoy their full rights, and benefit fully from participating in society and in the European economy, notably through the Single market. Achieving this and ensuring effective implementation of the UN Convention across the EU calls for consistency. This Strategy identifies actions at EU level to supplement national ones, and it determines the mechanisms needed to implement the UN Convention at EU level, including inside the EU institutions. It also identifies the support needed for funding, research, awareness-raising, statistics and data collection.
This Strategy focuses on eliminating barriers. The Commission has identified eight main areas for action: Accessibility, Participation, Equality, Employment, Education and training, Social protection, Health, and External Action. Within the ”Participation” area for action, the Strategy acknowledges that there are still many obstacles preventing people with disabilities from fully exercising their fundamental rights - including their Union citizenship rights - and limiting their participation in society on an equal basis with others. Those rights include the right to free movement, to choose where and how to live, and to have full access to cultural, recreational, and sports activities. To address this challenge, the Commission aimed to work to improve the accessibility of sports, leisure, cultural and recreational organisations, activities, events, venues, goods and services including audiovisual ones.

The policy document acknowledges that investing in the future of the Western Balkans also means investing in research, innovation, health, education, culture, youth and sport, which are powerful tools to boost not only the region’s economic development, resilience and competitiveness, but also its social cohesion, meaning full economic participation for all its citizens. It mentions that further IPA funding could subsequently support investments in rural areas and agriculture, in the cultural and creative sectors, in health and human capital development, including education, and to boost cross border cooperation, including on innovation.
The EU aims to support the development of human capital by increasing IPA funding, in particular as regards the reform priorities identified in the Economic Reform Programme process and joint policy guidance in the areas of education and skills, employment, and social protection and inclusion. Emphasis will also be put on youth, health, culture and sport. Although the Communication does not mention per se the role of culture in health and well-being, these two fields are mentioned together in numerous cases as important elements in building the region’s economic development, resilience and social cohesion, which creates relevant space for further fruitful synergies in practice.
The document targets Western Balkans countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia.

The RRF is the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, the European Union's plan for recovering from the economic and social damage of the coronavirus crisis. Its aim is to mitigate the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. The Facility is a temporary recovery instrument. It allows the Commission to raise funds to help Member States implement reforms and investments that are in line with the EU’s priorities and that address the challenges identified in country-specific recommendations under the European Semester framework of economic and social policy coordination. To benefit from the support of the Facility, Member States submit their recovery and resilience plans to the European Commission. Each plan sets out the reforms and investments to be implemented by end-2026 and Member States can receive financing up to a previously agreed allocation. RRF has six pillars: green transition; digital transformation; smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; social and territorial cohesion; health, and economic, social and institutional resilience; and policies for the next generation, children and the youth, such as education and skills.
Although the REGULATION (EU) 2021/241 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility does not have explicit mentions about the link between culture and health, these two fields are mentioned as important elements in building resilient societies after the Covid-19 pandemic: ”Reductions in spending on sectors, such as the education sector, cultural sector and creative sector, and on healthcare can prove counterproductive to achieving a swift recovery.” The facility included among its priority areas of intervention: the protection, development and promotion of cultural heritage and cultural services, but also measures for a healthy and well–adapted working environment addressing health risks, including promotion of physical activity or measures encouraging active and healthy ageing. The inclusion of both these fields in the Facility creates a fertile ground for encouraging synergies in practice. According to external research by the Culture Action Europe network and its members, 14 countries out of 26 (53% of the total) had included culture in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans by November 2021.

The proposed preparatory action shall facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experience and success stories in the EU, related to the role of culture for well-being and health. The preparatory action ‘Bottom-up Policy Development for Culture & Well-being in the EU’ aims to:
- facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experience and success stories within the European Union (EU) related to the role of culture for well-being and health
- map the most relevant existing practices in this regard, including those that are financed by European programmes
- improve the capacity of local actors to effectively benefit from culture as a means to increase well-being and health, with a special focus on mental health
- carry out small-scale pilot work on the ground concerning means of cooperating across sectors to enhance the well-being of individuals and communities
- establish and explore synergies between existing policies and programmes, as well as past, ongoing and planned actions – in particular those at the EU level – but also local, (macro-)regional and national initiatives.

The European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage reflects the common set-up for heritage-related activities at European level, primarily in EU policies and programmes. It aims to capture and scale-up the success of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, which aimed at encouraging more people to discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. The Framework for Action complements the Council’s Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022.
The framework proposes around 60 actions be implemented by the European Commission in 2019 and 2020, which focus on five main thematic areas: (1) Cultural heritage for an inclusive Europe: participation and access for all (2) Cultural heritage for a sustainable Europe: smart solutions for a cohesive and sustainable future. (3) Cultural heritage for a resilient Europe: safeguarding endangered heritage (4) Cultural heritage for an innovative Europe: mobilising knowledge and research (5) Cultural heritage for stronger global partnerships: reinforcing international cooperation. Under Pillar 4, Cultural Heritage for an Innovative Europe, there is a cluster of actions that aim at fostering social innovation by reinforcing the role of civil society in cultural heritage governance. These will also promote further experimentation and scientific studies on how participating in cultural heritage activities impacts on people’s well-being and health.
The Framework was proposed by the European Commission and is supported by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee. At national level, the European Commission invites Member States to draw up similar frameworks for heritage on a voluntary basis, to complement the Framework for Action.

The proposal for this thematic year came from the European Commission and it was adopted by Decision (EU) 2017/864 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2017. EYCH was a wide-ranging and inclusive initiative involving all EU institutions, all EU Member States, 9 partner countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Georgia, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), as well as a broad array of cultural stakeholders. In EU Member States and in associated countries it was implemented by National Coordinators designated by the relevant Ministries.
The aim of the European Year was to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. The general objectives were: to encourage and support the efforts of the Union, the Member States and regional and local authorities, in cooperation with the cultural heritage sector and broader civil society, to protect, safeguard, reuse, enhance, valorise and promote Europe's cultural heritage. It created the momentum for cultural heritage to be placed higher on the EU’s agenda, through an integrated approach.
In order to prepare the European Year, a special edition of the Eurobarometer survey was carried out in late 2017, according to which 71% Europeans agreed that cultural heritage can improve quality of life. The types of actions during EYCH consisted in: initiatives and events to promote debate and raise awareness of the importance and value of cultural heritage and to facilitate engagement with citizens and stakeholders; information, exhibitions, education and awareness-raising campaigns to convey values such as diversity and intercultural dialogue; the sharing of experience and good practices of national, regional and local administrations and other organisations, and the dissemination of information about cultural heritage, including via Europeana; studies and research and innovation activities and the dissemination of their results on a European or national scale; and the promotion of projects and networks connected to the European Year.
EYCH highlighted the contribution of sustainable cultural tourism to urban and regional development and was an opportunity to explore how to balance the sustainability of cultural heritage with the benefits of tourism, not just in economic terms, but also for the well-being of local communities.