The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture is working towards the establishment of an expert group on the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property.

On 18 October 2013, the European Commission organized a brainstorming meeting with key strategic partners, including UNESCO. The conclusions of this meeting were later presented by the European Commission to the Council Working Group on Culture. The Member States agreed to the proposal of the European Commission i.e. to abide by the conclusions with regard to the code of ethics, and to develop the guidelines once Directive 93/7 has been adopted in the framework of the discussions to be conducted under the preparation of the new Work Plan for Culture (WP).

In January 2014, the Joint Africa-EU Strategy Support Mechanism (JAES), with the support of the European Commission’s Directorate General Development and Cooperation, organised in Casablanca, Morocco, a pan-African Workshop on the protection of cultural goods against plunder, theft and illicit trafficking.

Based on practical cases, discussions contributed to sensitize stakeholders and experts on the relevance of the protection of cultural goods against plundering, theft and illicit trafficking within a perspective of stability, security and sustainable development. The conclusions of the meeting (see PDF document) provided a clear message and operational recommendations intended to help decision-makers with the implementation of policies for the protection of cultural goods policies. Experts agreed that the fight against this illegal trade must be reinforced and diversified at the international level. Africa and the EU should lead the efforts as a majority of stolen African cultural artefacts are either transiting through Europe or destined for the internal market.

More information on the Africa-EU Partnership

The meeting brought together over 80 experts representing African and European governments, African regional organizations, the African Union Commission, the European Commission but also international organizations, including UNESCO.

EU CULTNET aims at strengthening coordination between law enforcement and cultural authorities and private organizations (e.g. antique shops, auction houses, online auctions), by identifying and sharing, in compliance with data protection rules, information on criminal networks suspected of being involved in illicit trafficking of stolen cultural goods, in order to determine the links between such networks and other forms of (organized) crime and to identify routes, destinations, modus operandi and types of criminal activities, in close cooperation with relevant international organizations, such as UNESCO, Interpol, Eurojust and Europol.

The first meeting of EU CULTNET, an informal network of law enforcement authorities and experts competent in the domain of preventing and combatting crime against cultural goods, was held in Larnaka, Cyprus, on 30 May 2013.

• Council of the European Union passed the Resolution (14232/12)

See also

• Creative Europe: support programme for Europe's cultural and creative sectors from 2014
• European Union's actions on the fight against illicit traffic of cultural goods
• Council conclusions on preventing and combating crime against cultural goods; 3135th Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting Brussels, 13-14 December 2011
• Previous cooperation: HERMÉS 2011
• Previous cooperation: Euromed Heritage 4