European Heritage Award 2010

Celebrating Excellence

awarded to

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 1 April 2010 the European Commission and Europa Nostra announced the 2010 European Heritage Awards.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina has received the 2010 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra, category III – Dedicated Service.  This year the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only European institution to receive this, the highest European accolade for dedicated service to the preservation of the cultural heritage.

The award is presented to an individual or organization whose on-going contribution to heritage preservation demonstrates excellence in the protection, restoration and advancement of the cultural heritage in Europe and sets exceptional standards for heritage protection in Europe.

The European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra is one of the most important accolades in the field of heritage protection world-wide, and is often dubbed the “Nobel Prize for the Heritage” and the “Heritage Oscar.”

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina was nominated for the award by an independent Swiss expert from the University of Geneva, dr. Nadia Capuzzo Đerković.  The jury whose decision it was to make the award consisted of five eminent European experts from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Great Britain.

The jury’s announcement of the award to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments includes the following:

“The work of the Commission is an example to the whole of Europe, representing as it does a contribution to the preservation of unity in diversity and the universal values of the heritage.  It is a particularly significant example of conflict resolution in a world in which the cultural heritage is being used as an instrument and target for the destruction of communities.”

For more information http://www.europanostra.org/UPLOADS/FILS/2010%20EU_EN%20Awards%20PressRelease_en.pdf.