Luxembourg, 13 May 2011

(by Ton Zijlstra)

The Comité des Sages on bringing Europe's cultural heritage on-line is now available in all languages, after the final report having been presented in January. The report is called "The New Renaissance" (English pdf, all other language versions).

The "Comité des Sages" (Reflection Group) was set up in April 2010 by Vice President responsible for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Commissioner in charge for Education and Culture Androulla Vassiliou.

The task of the Group is to make recommendations to the European Commission, European cultural institutions and any stakeholders, on ways and means to make Europe's cultural heritage and creativity available on the Internet and to preserve it for future generations, looking in particular at funding sources, at how cultural organisations and the private sector can interact in the digital age, and at responsibilities and solutions for digitising material that is in the public domain or still in copyright.

Part of the process were a public consultation and a public hearing.