Heritage Council to unveil Estonia’s new policy vision

Estonia’s Heritage Council will present a new vision for the country’s heritage policy at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, ERR reports. The presentation will be streamed live on ERR’s website.

The council says Estonia’s rich cultural heritage is a source of distinct identity, a sense of place, and cultural and economic value, and should be treated as an investment in the future. However, the number of monuments in poor or emergency condition is growing while funding for their restoration and upkeep is shrinking.

“The heritage sector is underfunded, state decisions on planning the living environment do not take the impact on heritage into account, and awareness of the sector’s potential is low. Cultural heritage is seen more as a cost than an investment,” said council chair Siim Raie.

Raie said preserving cultural heritage was often treated as someone else’s responsibility. He added that the Constitution gives everyone a clear duty to ensure and develop a state that must guarantee the preservation of the nation, language and culture. “This is not an optional task, or one to deal with ‘when we become rich’. It is high time to pull together and invest more in the sector at every level, so that everything that makes Estonia Estonia is preserved,” he said.

The Heritage Council is an advisory body to the Ministry of Culture. Its members include experts in history, archaeology, ethnology, architecture, restoration, art history and the history of science, as well as representatives of universities, ministries, associations and unions. The minister of culture appoints council members for four-year terms.