A Position Paper supporting the establishment of a European Interdisciplinary Competence Centre dedicated to combating the illicit trafficking and looting of cultural goods was an important outcome from the EuroMed Digital Heritage Summit 2026.

Xavier Rodier, the ECHOES Coordinator, participated in the Round Table: Digitisation as a Tool Against illicit Trafficking with Corinne Szteinsznaider of Michael Culture which resulted in the issue of a draft Position paper for establishment of a European Interdisciplinary Competence Centre dedicated to combating the illicit trafficking and looting of cultural goods. The following aspects were discussed by the panel of experts:

  • Capacity building, awareness raising and the external dimension,
  • Building capacities and partnerships beyond borders,
  • Training, awareness, and global heritage protection,
  • A Competence Centre for Cultural Heritage Protection – from vision to implementation,
  • Reviewing and adopting the Position Paper.

The Position Paper summarises the current situation as being a fractured ecosystem with a number of shortcomings attributed to structural differences and lack of continuous funding. The proposed solution is the Establishment of a Competence Centre which will bring together six interconnected communities: law enforcement agencies, cultural heritage institutions and professionals, social sciences and humanities researchers, technology developers, civil society organisations, and educational communities. In particular, the Centre would would develop synergies with existing European initiatives. The Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage will provide the technical backbone of European cultural heritage protection, and the Competence Centre would constitute the institutional backbone of the human network required to deploy that infrastructure effectively in prevention and investigation. In this respect, ECHOES will play an important role in the European Community’s fight against Cultural Heritage crime.

With thanks to Dr. Eleftherios Anastasovitis (MusicSphere and EXCALIBUR) for his contribution to this article.