The Ministry of Culture of France has made a voluntary contribution of EUR 103 000 to the budget of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) to further support the activities of the programme.

The agreement was officialised on 23 November 2022 during a meeting between Ambassador Marie FONTANEL, Permanent Representative of France to the Council of Europe, Mr. Bruno FAVEL, Representative of France to the EPA and Head of the World Heritage Mission within the French Ministry of Culture, and Mr. Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe at the Council of Europe Headquarters in Strasbourg, France (see photo).

2022 marks a special year for France and the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe with the publication by the French Ministry of Culture with the support of the EPA of a brochure presenting the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe crossing France and the organisation of the 9th Training Academy on Cultural Routes in Fontainebleau on 31 May to 3 June, hosted by the “Impressionisms Routes”, the latter organised in the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union.

France has been a member of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) since 2011, and among its founding member States. Today, France is the European country with the largest number of Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, counting 32 Cultural Routes crossing the country and 14 Cultural Routes having their headquarters across the country.

Mr. Bruno FAVEL, Head of the World Heritage Mission, Directorate General of Heritage and Architecture of Ministry of Culture, and Ms. Orane PROISY, Head of the European Heritage Projects and Networks Department of Ministry of Culture, are the national representatives of France to the EPA on Cultural Routes.