Call to Action to the European Union – Lead by Example
We, the undersigned specialist European landscape organisations, call on the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament to work together to become a contracting party to the Council of Europe Landscape Convention, and to:
- Develop an integrated approach to landscape for the European Union, analogous to that on cultural heritage, which recognises the mutual interaction between landscape and EU policy, and create an EU Expert Group on Landscape to advise the Commission and strengthen cross-DG policy integration.
- Establish a cooperation platform with the Council of Europe on landscape to align efforts and share best practice, and engage with the relevant EU Parliament committees in hearings and joint initiatives.
- Mainstream landscape into EU flagship initiatives, such as the Nature Restoration Law, the Green Deal, Climate Adaptation, and the New European Bauhaus, as well as existing cooperation programmes such as URBACT IV, Erasmus, EUI and Creative Europe, and include strategic approaches to landscape in the core remit of the European Environment Agency and of ESPON.
- Make landscape a key policy instrument in the next Multi-annual Financial Framework and Integrate landscape in EU research programmes such as Horizon Europe and future framework programmes, to provide the necessary evidence base for policy making.
- Promote cross-border and transboundary programmes, using landscape as an integrating factor for cohesion, reconciliation, and sustainable development, while strengthening democratic participation through landscape literacy by embedding education, awareness-raising, citizen engagement and capacity building into EU programmes.
