As a founding member of both the Council of Europe and the European Union, and a member of UNESCO since 1947, Luxembourg participates in an important number of their respective programmes, such as: Cultural routes, Herein, European Heritage Days, Eurimages (Council of Europe), Creative Europe, European Heritage Label, European Capitals of Culture (EU), World Heritage, Intangible cultural heritage, Geoparks, Man and Biosphere, Associated schools (UNESCO).
Furthermore, transborder cooperation is of particular importance in the context of the “Greater Region” that encompasses two German Länder (Rhineland Palatinate and Saarland), the Belgian French-speaking and German-speaking communities of Wallonia and Ostbelgien, the French region of Grand Est and Luxembourg. As a follow-up to the European Capital of Culture 2007 that included said territory, a specific association had been created to perpetuate exchanges and best practices from that year; the association has since been incorporated into the institutional framework of intergovernmental Greater Region cooperation and henceforth concentrates on political issues.
Luxembourg is also member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). The OIF have gradually transformed from a cultural cooperation agency to a fully-fledged foreign policy structure, cultural implication in its’ activities is now limited to the Jeux de la Francophonie that take place every four years.
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions has been ratified in December 2006 and its implementation and monitoring falls within the competences of the ministry of Culture who delegates the task to the National UNESCO Commission.
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