Posted on 07 November 2018
The coordinators of the European Documentation Centres (EDC) of the Italian Europe Direct Network visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 5 October 2018. The visit aimed at discovering the Archives, understanding their role and functioning in the European institutional and academic context, and exploring its documentary heritage in view of enhancing cooperation.
“This visit is part of the second annual meeting of the Europe Direct network” said Manuela Sessa, national correspondent of the Europe Direct network in Italy and member of the European Commission Representation Office in Rome. The Italian Europe Direct network is currently composed of 50 European documentation centres and 44 Europe Direct offices, which provide information services to citizens about the EU.
“It is useful for the coordinators of our EDCs to understand how these European archives are managed and to seek ways of collaborating” said Mrs Sessa. “Documentation centres that have been active for many years already have a good relationship with the Historical Archives of the European Union, and now the HAEU online services can certainly be useful. We can use them in our libraries, and also students and citizens can take advantage of these services.”
Mrs Sessa also evoked the collaboration established through the travelling exhibition ‘Ever Closer Union’, launched by the HAEU in 2017 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. “Many EDC centres in different Italian cities hosted the exhibition and we hope that the cooperation between EDCs and the Historical Archives of the European Union can become ever stronger in the future”.
Dieter Schlenker, Director of the HAEU, delivered the welcome speech and explained the mission and functioning of the Archives. EDC coordinators also had the opportunity to discuss directly with HAEU archivists, learning more about their daily work and specialised tasks.
The event ended with a guided visit of the archival repositories and of the Villa Salviati gardens and grotto. Afterwards the EDC coordinators went on to Perugia, where they took part in the Europe Direct annual conference.
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Additional photos from EDC coordinators visit to our Archives are available on our Facebook Page.