E.C.C.O. - ENCoRE

Collaboration of E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE Introduction Since its foundation, E.C.C.O. (European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers' Organisations A.I.S.B.L. / Confederation Européenne des Organisations de Conservateurs-Restaurateurs A.I.S.B.L.) has been actively working to raise standards in the education of conservator-restorers, and has dedicated a working group to this subject. A major project in this respect was the E.C.C.O. partnership in the European CONBEFOR project, which reported in 2000. In the E.C.C.O. Newsletter nr. 8/2002, an extensive paper by René Larsen, chairman of the board of ENCoRE, was published detailing how ENCoRE (The European Network for Conservation-Restoration Education) came into being and its activities. In this paper it was already mentioned how ENCoRE actively promotes close connections and co-operations with public and private institutions which are devoted to practical conservation and with organisations representing the practical conservation field. One major issue for the latter co-operation is the implementation of the Bologna Declaration for higher education in Europe. In the ENCoRE clarification document it is defined that conservation-restoration as an academic discipline must be based upon the highest level of research. The aim is that all conservation-restoration education programmes in Europe will fulfil the Bologna Declaration for higher education in Europe by 2010 at the latest1. Furthermore, in his paper René Larsen described the need to support those activities that adhere to the development of a fully recognised academic education programme in conservation-restoration in order to avoid drawbacks for the education in some countries as well as to ensure that the professional conservator-restorers' responsibilities can fulfil the recommendations outlined in the APEL report. Since March 2002 the E.C.C.O. working group of Education, Qualification and Practice was keeping close contact with ENCoRE, building on previous collaboration in the CONBEFOR project. As a result, the board of ENCoRE invited E.C.C.O. to discuss and set up detailed goals, strategies and recommendations for the development of a European conservation-restoration education programme towards 2010 to meet the needs in the profession for the highest possible quality in the protection of cultural heritage. The E.C.C.O. Committee gracefully accepted this invitation and this report will focus on the meetings and papers that resulted from that. A first meeting was held in Antwerp on 7th and 8th of September 2002. The meeting was attended by René Larsen, Wolfgang Baatz, Anne Bacon, Joost Caen, Agnes le Gac and Ulrich Schiessl from the board of ENCoRE and Francisca Figueira and Janine van Reekum from the E.C.C.O. Committee. Two major items were discussed; the compilation of a Joint Statement on the education of conservation-restoration and setting up a draft Discussion Paper on the education and access to the conservation-restoration profession. Recognition of the Conservator-Restorers' profession and its professionals For decades a major issue of the international society of conservator-restorers has been the recognition of the profession and its professionals. Naturally, this is also a major aim of E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE. In the ICOM-CC Code of Ethics of 1984 defining the conservator-restorer and the profession is stated that "It should help the profession to achieve parity in status with disciplines such as those of the curator or the archaeologist". Moreover, the document states that "Training should be terminated by a thesis or diploma paper, and its completion recognized by the equivalent of a university graduate degree"2. The E.C.C.O. Professional Guidelines (I) of 1993 says that "To maintain the standards of the profession, the Conservator-Restorers' professional education and training shall be at the level of a university degree or equivalent"3. Based on the E.C.C.O. professional guidelines and the continuous development of the profession and education, The Document of Pavia of recommends "the recognition and promotion of conservation-restoration as a discipline covering all categories of cultural property and taught at university level or recognised equivalent, with the possibility of a doctorate"4. All later documents of both E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE support and detail these recommendations thus demonstrating that the recognition of the profession is necessarily linked to the recognition of its educational basis. Moreover, as for other professions, the professional level of the conservator-restorers' profession depends on the level of its educational basis as defined by the Authorities. In Europe the definitions of professions are in the process of transformation into more general and uniform authorised descriptions based on well defined educational levels. The only way we can achieve the full recognition of the Conservator-Restorer's profession as a regulated profession is therefore to adapt and follow these definitions and structures for comparable recognised educations and regulated professions at academic level. Joint Statement on the Education of Conservator-Restorers of Cultural Heritage The Joint Statement was primarily set up to meet an urgent critical situation in Germany concerning the qualifications and entry into the profession of conservators-restorers trained at a Bachelor's Level. Therefore the Joint Statement notes, among other things, that a Bachelor's Level graduate of conservation-restoration of cultural heritage will be qualified to enter the study at a Master's Level and/or work in the conservation-restoration of cultural heritage in the public or private sectors only under the direction and supervision of a conservator-restorer of cultural heritage. A Master's Level graduate of conservation-restoration of cultural heritage will be qualified to register for a PhD programme or to work as a conservator-restorer of cultural heritage in the public or private sectors5. After the Antwerp meeting, the draft Joint Statement was presented to the E.C.C.O. Committee of which a majority agreed to the statement. Both Gerlinde Tautschnig, President of E.C.C.O., and René Larsen, Chairman of ENCoRE, thus signed the Joint Statement which was consequently distributed and published. Since this statement was based upon the at the time current E.C.C.O. Guidelines (III) and the ENCoRE Clarification Document, and due to time pressure, it was only adopted by the boards and not brought to both General Assemblies. E.C.C.O. - ENCoRE Paper on Education and Access to the Conservation-Restoration Profession As mentioned above, a draft Discussion Paper (formally referred to as: E.C.C.O.-ENCoRE Paper on Education and Access to the Conservation-Restoration Profession) was also created at the Antwerp meeting. This Discussion Paper is based on the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and Council on the recognition of professional qualifications. The proposal was presented by the European Commission and is dated 7th March 20026. The explanatory memorandum of this Directive describes that following the adoption of a prior Directive in May 2001, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed that "it is important to have consolidated versions, easily accessible to everyone, of the legal texts applicable in the field of mutual recognition of professional qualifications". Furthermore the memorandum notes that a High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility was created which produced a report in December 2001 stating with regard to professional recognition that "the EU and Member States should attach priority to increasing the speed and ease of professional recognition (for regulated professions) including conditions supporting more automatic recognition, and introduce a more uniform, transparent and flexible regime for the recognition of qualifications in the regulated professions by 2005". One of the main objectives of this Directive is to contribute to flexible labour and services markets. "A clear, secure and quick system for the recognition of qualifications in the field of the regulated professions is required to ensure free movement". "In order to make the system clearer, easier and simpler to understand and apply, this proposal for a single directive comprehensively revises all of the directives founded on recognition of title so as to maintain the principle conditions and guarantees, while simplifying the structure and making improvements to the working of the system. The proposal also provides for simpler conditions for the cross-frontier provision of services compared with those applicable to the freedom of establishment in order further to contribute to the flexibility of labour and services markets". The first chapter of Title III "Freedom of Establishment" of the proposal mentions the established five levels of qualification. Starting with the first level described as "attestation of competence", the second "certificate", the third "diploma certifying successful completion of a short training course", the fourth "diploma certifying successful completion of an intermediate training course" and the fifth "diploma certifying successful completion of a higher training course". These levels are referred to in the Joint Statement as well as in the Discussion Paper. The proposal for the Directive furthermore describes, among other things, conditions for recognition and recognition of professional experience. The training, professional activities and acquired rights of doctors of medicine, nurses responsible for general care, dental practitioners, veterinary surgeons, midwives, pharmacists and architects are described in the proposal. We, conservator-restorers, also aim to become a regulated profession and what could be better as to join forces from both the education side and the professional side in conservation-restoration. Therefore the Discussion Paper was drafted in accordance with specific descriptions from the proposal for the Directive from both the doctors of medicine and architects. The draft of the Discussion paper was, after the Antwerp meeting, first extensively discussed in both boards. The final draft was presented and adopted at the E.C.C.O. General Assembly on March 7th 2003. The Assembly was attended by Wolfgang Baatz from the board of ENCoRE. The ENCoRE General Assembly adopted the Discussion Paper on May 9th 2003. Janine van Reekum from E.C.C.O. attended this meeting. Following the adoptions a draft 'background paper' was created according to specific paragraphs7 mentioned in the Directive, dealing with heritage being a matter of public interest and explaining the importance of conservation as regard to architectural heritage. Since these matters are so explicitly mentioned in the Directive, the boards indicated that the importance of cultural heritage and its conservation should be stressed in the Background paper of E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE accordingly. The Background paper was approved by both boards in June 20038. It is now important to lobby at a European level and have the Discussion and Background papers incorporated in the final European Directive for professional qualifications. Both E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE intend to focus on creating such contacts in order to achieve that goal. René Larsen Chairman of the board of ENCoRE Janine van Reekum General Secretary of E.C.C.O. (until 2005) _________________________ 1 see for the Bologna Declaration and other ENCoRE documents: www.encore-edu.org 2 ICOM-CC The Code of Ethics, The Conservator-Restorer: a Definition of the Profession, 1984. See www.encore-edu.org 3 The E.C.C.O. Professional Guidelines (I) 1993 were updated and adopted in 2002, see www.ecco-eu.org 4 The Document of Pavia, 1997. See www.encore-edu.org 5 see for the Joint Statement the E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE websites 6 the European Directive can be found on the EC website: www.europa.eu.int , with reference to the document number: 2002/0061 (COD). The complete website address for the document is: http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/qualifications/com02-119_en.pdf 7 proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the recognition of professional qualifications. Paragraph 20 and 21, page 20 8 both the Discussion and Background papers are to be found on the E.C.C.O. and ENCoRE websites

 

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