Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage Is Key, Says Top Diplomat

Balint Odor, Hungary's permanent representative to the EU and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, gave an an interview for Magyar Nemzet. In it, he discussed the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage, and the role of the European Union to actively prevent conflicts and to promote reconciliation through the support for regional cultural heritage.

Balint Odor, Hungary's Permanent Representative to the EU (Photo: Andras Greskovits)

Among the priorities of the 2024 Hungarian EU Presidency is the protection of cultural heritage. What exactly is this about?

The EU Cultural Heritage Initiative was launched in 2021. The initiative is about the European Union taking a more proactive and new approach to crisis situations in its immediate environment, and actively working to prevent conflict and promote reconciliation through support for regional cultural heritage. This is not a cultural or museum project, but a new approach, long supported by our country.

It means taking active action through the delivery of on the ground assistance by actively supporting cultural institutions that are of crucial importance to people living in these crisis or potential crisis areas.

The cultural heritage initiative takes into account the fact that several ethnic and religious communities live together in the Middle East and Africa. An effective way to promote peaceful coexistence between different ethnic and religious communities and to prevent conflicts is to support cultural institutions that are important to these communities. These institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.) are essential for them and are in many cases run by churches or faith-based humanitarian organizations. The initiative represents a complex new approach that considers the safeguarding of both tangible and intangible heritage important.

The objectives of the initiative reflect the approach of the Hungary Helps agency. The implemented programs and field experiences of Hungary Helps show that cultural heritage protection is a multi-disciplinary endeavor. Beyond helping persecuted Christians, it has important links to the development policy potential of a given region or municipality, but the impact of its programs extends from climate change to alleviating migratory pressures on the EU. Agencies from other countries and some NGOs are also out in the field trying to help in conflict or crisis zones.

The initiative is new and we have been actively involved in shaping it over the past three years. The first formal step was taken by the European Union's External Action Service (EEAS), which issued a Concept Note in 2021. Several of our ideas and justifications were included in the text. These were then adopted in 2021 in a political document, the so-called Council conclusions, with the consensus of member states.

We considered it important to take it up a level during the Hungarian Presidency, so we made the issue a specific priority in the Hungarian Presidency program. The practical aim of this would be to make EU decision-makers and the EU institutions aware of the positive benefits of the new approach.

We also want to make EU funding available for projects implemented by member states' development agencies and NGOs.

Photo by Andras Greskovits

Am I understanding correctly that you have successfully influenced EU legislation and perspectives in this area?

During the debate in 2021 on the Council conclusions dealing with the EU approach to cultural heritage in conflict and crisis, we had, among other things, two important points and we achieved them. On the one hand, the strengthening of inter-religious dialogue as an objective was included in the text - a major achievement in the context of the EU's religious neutrality. And on the other hand, we also succeeded in convincing the EU to provide resources for the protection of cultural heritage. The modalities for this have yet to be worked out, but my answer is: unequivocally yes, we have successfully influenced EU legislation.

You pointed out that protecting cultural heritage has wide-ranging impact. Could you highlight at least one of these, which is also important for the Hungarian Presidency?

One of the most important impacts is to help people in crisis and conflict zones to stay and prosper locally. It is clear that if local hospitals, schools and housing in a city or region are destroyed by, say, a terrorist attack, or if they are destroyed by a natural disaster or climate change, people will flee. This is what happened in northern Iraq because of ISIS. If we provide assistance to the communities affected by conflict, and rebuild their schools, hospitals, housing, churches, then there is a chance that they will stay there.

The EU has also recognized that, in addition to tangible cultural heritage, the protection of intangible cultural heritage has an enormous role and significance.

When we protect or nurture these, we are reaching the connective tissues of society, the folk customs, minority languages and even freedom of worship, and helping to build and maintain community ties among the people who live there.

Can you give us an example of this?

In 2020, the explosion in the Port of Beirut killed 200 people, left 80 missing and injured more than 6,000. The explosion destroyed the homes of 300,000 people, and hospitals and schools were also destroyed or damaged. Beirut's oldest school, founded in 1881, was also badly damaged in the blast. The Zahrat El-Ishan school, attended by nearly one thousand students, was included in the UNESCO network of associated schools in 2002 and has played an important role in the social life of the city and Lebanon as a whole. Although the school belongs to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut, it is open to students of all religions and backgrounds and also has an orphanage. The roof of the school was also damaged and rebuilt by Hungary Helps and the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) in a joint project. This has provided a tremendous opportunity to keep the school open, to keep hundreds of children in school and to ensure the workplaces of the more than 100 teaching staff.    

I assume these are costly projects. How much was this?

On the contrary. Well, it's all relative, but this project totaled almost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, of which Hungary Helps and the Geneva-based ALIPH agency each committed seventy-five thousand dollars. The remaining funds were provided by a French NGO and a religious organization.

That's precisely the point with these projects is that even with small amounts of money you can achieve significant results. How else can you view it when students can again study in the school and the orphanage can again take in orphans? Our basic principle is that small investments can achieve big results with cultural heritage projects in the Middle East, in Africa, in Syria and in Iraq.

And if you think about it, we are talking about the most significant migration countries of origin.

How does the international conference, entitled Protection of Cultural Heritage held on September 9 in Brussels and organized under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency relate to what we've been talking about?

The September 9 conference was the first in the history of the EU to focus on the protection of cultural heritage. It was also the first in that it provided an opportunity and a role not only for EU decision-makers, representatives of member states and senior EU officials, but also and above all to members of local communities, who live in their community, who are very aware of what the help means to their community, and who know what the community needs. For example, Ms Souha Choueri, the principal of the aforementioned school in Beirut, Zahrat El-Ishan, was here. It was touching to listen to her talk about the help provided by Hungary, the pictures of the terrible devastation caused by the explosion and finally the reconstructed roof structure. Also thanking Hungary for its help was Edmond Alejji, the lead architect in the Hungary Helps flagship project, the reconstruction of the Krak des Chevaliers. The giant fortress built by the crusaders is still one of the most important symbols of the Christian community's identity, but it is also of significance to Hungary, as the Hungarian King Andrew II regularly donated money to support the construction of the castle and the maintenance of its soldiers in the early 13th century. It is also an important tourist site, providing a livelihood for area inhabitants, not to mention the fact that the restoration of the monument and the archaeological excavations were carried out employing local labor, which creates jobs for the community. This is the so-called sustainability aspect, ensuring that local communities can thrive in their place of birth. Mohamed El Hassan, chairman of the Niger-based NGO Imane Atarikh, spoke about the devastating destruction of the Sahel region's cultural heritage in the context of climate change.

There is a giant need to protect local cultural heritage, but they have neither the resources nor the expertise to do so, and they need our help.

These are all examples of the wide-ranging role that a cultural heritage project can play.

Is this work carried out by member states on their own, or is the EU involved?

Our aim is to involve the EU as much as possible in this work, mainly through providing resources.

It is certainly a positive development that in 2021, with the adoption of the aforementioned Council conclusions, cultural heritage protection has been brought to the fore and that it was understood that this work, this tool, can also play an important role in the Union's external relations toolbox.

Our fundamental aim is for the EU to provide more resources than it currently does for this important task. There are already examples where so-called civilian missions managed by the EU can include cultural heritage professionals (e.g. the EU-Georgia mission) whose role is to assess the needs of the country and help design and implement concrete assistance. But a lot more resources are needed than are available at present, as evidenced by the increasing number of armed conflicts and crises in our immediate neighborhood.

What are the takeaways of the conference where, as you mentioned, in addition to local stakeholders, EU officials and even museums, banks and foundations were present?

Yes, we invited foundations and museums to the conference. In one panel discussion, we were mainly concerned with what kind of non-EU financial support schemes, such as Public-Private Partnership (PPP)-based schemes could be developed, and EEAS proved to be a serious partner, actively participating in this panel discussion. This is how we came to invite the European Investment Bank and the director of the Thyssen Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. Speaking of museums, we also touched on the specific role of museums at the conference, with the representative of the Hungarian National Museum and a Cypriot colleague focusing on, among other things, the challenges of smuggling and illegal trafficking of cultural goods, which is of major importance in the fight against terrorism - something I haven't mentioned yet, but is another significant context of protecting cultural heritage.

It is a proven fact that objects of cultural heritage in Iraq, Syria and Egypt are being 'hunted' by Islamic State militants and other terrorist group leaders to be sold through illegal channels to raise money to finance their terrorist activities. 

But if I had to highlight one message that dominated the conference, I would say that everyone is now fully aware that we need many more projects and actions than we have now. This is what we tried to make EU decision-makers understand.

Photo by Gyorgy Szendrei

As for the future, with almost four months left of the Hungarian Presidency, how will you proceed in the area of cultural heritage protection?

First of all, more than two hundred and thirty people attended the conference, and due to the level of interest, we had to close registration before the start of the conference. This shows that there is a demand for the work that the Hungarian Presidency is doing in this field. More than 20 NGOs, including Europa Nostra and member state agencies (like France's ALIPH and AFD and Italy's AVSI, for example) participated in the conference. We'll be putting out a publication on the presentations, and will include our main conclusions.

Another important achievement of the Hungarian Presidency is that at the end of July, we decided to set up an independent Council working group for the protection of cultural heritage in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).

We can directly encourage the Commission to take on a greater role in work that is very important not just to Hungary, but for example to France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. Many are only now waking up and embarking on the path that we have been on for almost a decade. So we can say that many are already following Hungary's example. The working group launches with intense ambition at the end of September, and its work will focus on, among other points, the effective exchange of information, reviewing possible EU resources and, of course, securing the greater involvement of the Commission.

Cover photo: Balint Odor, Hungary's Permanent Representative to the EU (Photo: Andras Greskovits)