Culture & Tourism Group

North Sea Commission Culture and Tourism Group XVIII Meeting, Ribe (Ribe Amt, Denmark)14-17 March 2002

The XVIII Meeting of the North Sea Commission's thematic group on Culture and Tourism was hosted by Ribe County Council in Denmark and was held at Hotel Dagmar in Ribe.

During the first evening, there was a welcome reception at the Old Town Hall of Ribe, including a guided tour of the building. Thereafter, the whole company walked to the Museum Ribes Vikinger (The Vikings of Ribe), where we first had a guided tour of the exhibition, led by Dorthe.

Thereafter, there was a very tasteful Viking-style dinner at the museum.

In conjunction with the meeting, excursions to Esbjerg and Fanø were organised.

In Esbjerg, we first visited the Music Academy of West-Jutland (Vestjysk Musikkonservatorum) where Director Axel Momme welcomed us and guided us through the building and its activities. Next stop was the Music House in Esbjerg. Here Director Allan Grige gave us a comprehensive introduction of the house and its activities, and after a delightful coffee break with Danish bakery, we attended rehearsals of the Fledermaus by Strauss.

The day was concluded with a dinner at Hotel Dagmar hosted by Ribe County Council. Here, Mr and Mrs Harry Hansen, Chair of Education and Culture Committee of the County Council, and Mr Christian Abildgaard, Head of Education and Culture Department of the County Council attended.

On Saturday 16 March, we had an excursion to the island of Fanø, the northernmost of the North Frisian islands.

On Fanø, we visited the village of Sønderho, starting with a guided tour to the Fanø Art Museum, led by Kerry Andersen, chair of the museum board. At a traditional Danish lunch at the picturesque Sønderho Kro (Inn), we were also given a presentation by Vibeke Schøtt of the Old Sønderho Foundation and their work to preserve old buildings in the. Vibeke Schøtt is Chair of the Old Sønderho Foundation, and is also head of Fanø Music School and Director of Fanø Music Festival. Her presentation was followed by a presentation of traditional Fanø music, by Peter Uhrbrand, assisted by his musician colleagues from Sønderho.

The visit was rounded off with a visit to Hanne's House, one of the old buildings now in the care of the Old Sønderho Foundation.

Upon return to Ribe, we had dinner at Café Kolvig.

On Sunday at 11.00, the Hotel Dagmar offered all guests a guided city walk through the old town.

Key items discussed at the meeting included new Interreg IIIB North Sea initiatives, an action plan for culture and tourism based on the new vision document of the North Sea Commission, a more general discussion on the Interreg programmes as a vehicle for regional development and the North Sea Festival of Youth.

Interreg IIIB North Sea has been welcomed as a suitable financial instrument for increased North Sea co-operation. Several project ideas have been launched and developed by the group, and new ideas are currently being finalised for the call for proposals in September. Foremost among these are the Waves of Culture project and the NAVE - norTrail project, but also a new cycle route project, a new Viking project and a project focusing on tourism for the disabled have been launched. New ideas also include a project focusing on the period 400-850 AD, the so-called Dark Ages or Migration Period/Merovingian or Vendel Period of Northern European history.

Concerns have also been expressed though, that the complexity of the programme and the uncertainties concerning actual project costs, fluctuating exchange rates and the final financial outcome could favour certain types of partners and projects at the expense of projects originating with our member regions and projects sponsoring development in peripheral regions and areas.

North Sea Festival of Youth is the first major culture event sponsored by the North Sea Commission. This festival, to be held in Kristianssand, Norway 4-8 September 2002 will unite youth from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland and Norway. The will participate in joint workshops focusing on performance, music, singing, jiggling, film, art, dance and clowning and also produce short joint performances. Groups and individuals from all countries will also present their own contributions at stages all over the town and in adjacent towns. The festival will be concluded with a big farewell party with concerts, dance and good food. We feel that this event will be a major contribution to increased North Sea co-operation in the future.

Action plan for the culture and tourism group. The North Sea Commission has been working on a new vision document for the North Sea during 2001. The document was approved by the Executive Committee in March 2002 and will be finally approved by the General Assembly in Norwich in June. The culture and tourism group has decided to come up with an action plan to follow up the visions presented in this document, entitled From Vision to Action, North Sea Commission 2002-2003.

The document states that the "main political challenge is to encourage greater awareness of the common cultural background (of the North Sea region), and to inspire broader and more intensive cultural co-operation and exchange between the NSC member regions through sports, recreation and youth work in addition to culture, cultural heritage and tourism development." The document also stressed the need for European funds to become more applicable and accessible for regional co-operation. Specific funds should also be made available by the North Sea states for increased cultural co-operation.

Minutes of XVIII Meeting of the NSC Culture and Tourism Group, held at Hotel Dagmar in Ribe, Denmark 14-17 March 2002

Present:

Apologies had been received from Mr Svein Schrøder Amundsen, Hordaland County Council, and consequently, the agenda item concerning North Sea languages was withdrawn.

1st session was held at Hotel Dagmar on 15 March at 9AM-13PM.

1.  Presentation of members and observers attending
All members and observers presented themselves.

2. Culture in Ribe County
Gyrite Andersen gave a brief introduction to the cultural activities and responsibilities of Ribe County Council.

3. Approval of Agenda
The proposed Agenda was approved.

4. Minutes of XVII Meeting, Bengtsfors
The minutes were approved as true records of the proceedings.

It was noted that the North Sea Commission Strategy Document was discussed in Fife in December by the Executive Committee and was approved at the Executive Committee meeting in Groningen in March.

The Executive Committee circulated the draft concerning our group's contribution to all members prior to the approval.

5. North Sea Festival of Youth
Gyrite Andersen presented the framework programme as discussed at a recent meeting in Kristianssand. Unfortunately, she was the only national co-ordinator that could attend this meeting.

It was stressed that the establishment of networks was important if we were going to have future festivals, and it was recommended that a seminar for the leaders should be incorporated into the festival programme.

It was also underlined that information about the festival now must be disseminated quickly and effectively, and that the national co-ordinators should play a key role here.

Finally, it was strongly underlined that the festival must retain a North Sea Commission dimension, and that media publicity should be sought in all NSC member regions.

Responsibility: Vest-Agder County Council and national co-ordinators.

6. Waves of Culture Interreg IIIB proposal
Kerstin Olsson presented the current state of the project proposal.

She said that the seminar in Uddevalla, following immediately after our Bengtsfors meeting really was the start of the process of defining and refining the project ideas into a project proper. There has been expressed great enthusiasm for the project all around the North Sea. The partner search phase is now over, and partners have begun to sign up for the project. There are still problems in some parts of the North Sea, though.

During the subsequent discussion, several aspects of the project were discussed. There is a general feeling that this is a very good project, but some members felt the project still could be less complex and the spatial development aspect should probably be more prominent in the project description.

On the other hand, several members complimented the project and encouraged other members to go back and market the project in their own authorities and seek participation in the project.

7. Seminar on Cultural Heritage and Business Development in Norwich 18 June
The co-ordinator presented the programme, which now has been printed in the NSC General Assembly programme booklet.

Members should encourage participation at the seminar from their own regions.

Responsibility: Co-ordinator

8. Dark Ages/Kings' Route project
Giles Goyder presented an Interreg IIIB North Sea project proposal for a project focusing on the period 400-850AD. The project idea was met with acclaim and it was suggested that Suffolk, in co-operation with Rogaland, could develop this idea into a project application for next year. It is hoped to convene a partner meeting in conjunction with the Directoria in Norwich in June.

2nd Session was held at Hotel Dagmar on 16 March 9AM-11AM

9. NAVE - norTRAIL project
Tor Titlestad presented this INTERREG IIIB North Sea project proposal. The submission of the project application has now been delayed until September. Aberdeenshire has now taken on the role of lead-partner of the project. The project application has recently been sent to the Interreg office in Viborg for a pre-assessment.

10. North Sea Viking Legacy/Destination Viking
Geir Sør-Reime reported that the approval of the NSVL final report has again been delayed due to deficiences in some of the partner reports.

Concerning the Destination Viking, the following-up project of NSVL, an application for the Interreg IIIB Baltic Sea Region will be sent in for the 2nd application round there, on 28th March. In the North Sea region, a similar application will be prepared for the 2nd round there, in September. A similar project is currently under preparation in the Northern Periphery also.

11. On the Edge
The book containing papers and reports from the conference is not yet ready. It has been suggested that a second On the Edge conference could be incorporated into the Waves of Culture project. The focus of the On the Edge conference was however very different from that of the Waves of Culture project, but it is probably wise to include a conference into the Waves project in any case.

12. North Sea (Sports) Challenge
The co-ordinator reported no progress here, and the group was in agreement that this item should not be given priority.

13. Next meeting(s)
The XIX meeting will be held in Bruges 3-6 October 2002. Planning for this meeting is now progressing. As Bruges is one of the European Cities of Culture this year, hotel rooms are in great demand, and it is recommended that we all register early for this meeting. Otherwise we may risk that no hotel beds are available.

Responsibility: Euregio Scheldemond

The venue of the XX meeting during spring next year was also discussed. Our preferred venue would really be in Germany or alternatively in North Holland. As these areas currently are not active in the work of the group, the co-ordinator will make initial contacts with them to see if it would be possible to have the meeting in Germany (Slesvig-Holstein, Bremen or Lower Saxony) or North-Holland.

Responsibility: Co-ordinator

3rd Session held at Hotel Dagmar on 17 March 9AM-11AM

14. Tourism for disabled
Karen Sofie Therkildsen reported and said that the application for Interreg IIIB funding will be ready for the September call.

There could still be room for additional partners.

15. Interreg and participation
Several members have expressed concern that the application forms, proceedures and not the least the complicated rules and regulations for the Interreg programmes may prevent peripheral regions and areas in participating due to this complexity. If things become too complicated, only certain partners and types of project will join.

There was also expressed some concern that national authorities interferes with these regional development initiatives and sponsor some projects where national authorities are strong stakeholders, seemingly at the expense of more bottom-up projects developed by local and regional actors.

More information material, especially concerning the implications of participating in a project should be made. An "Interreg for beginners" handbook should be produced. Information on procedures, financial and other consequences should also be more prominent at Directorias.

Responsibility: Co-ordinator for direct contact with Interreg secretariat, all members in general

16. Evaluation of the NSC Culture and Tourism Group
A self-evaluation should probably be a regular feature on our agenda. This time a number of issues were discussed.

A closer co-operation with the business development group on cultural tourism should be sought, and probably combined meetings (or parts of meetings) could be a good way to proceed with this idea.

It was also discussed if the more general type excursion in conjunction with the group meetings could be replaced by visits to projects that have been sponsored/supported by the group.

Parts of the meetings could possibly also be more open to a larger group of interested persons.

It was also pointed out that the elements of the vision document relating to our group should be incorporated into an action plan that could be presented at the next meeting for initial discussion.

It was stressed that the group should be open, it should be based on networking and it should function as a platform for further network building and development of more concrete co-operation projects. Members should try and get information on the group out, promote it wherever possibly and encourage more active involvement from further regions. Co-operation with other thematic groups should also be considered for specific issues and actions.

At the next meeting (in Bruges) we should try and have presentations of concrete co-operation projects.

Responsibility: Co-ordinator (action plan draft), all members