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European Historic Houses

EHH

The European Historic Houses Association has been active in Brussels for almost three decades.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Anna Panagopoulou (Cabinet of Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas)

24 Nov 2025 · Presentation of the European Historic Houses' work, ideas and proposal for cultural tourism and agrotourism in the context of EU Tourism Strategy.

Response to A Culture Compass for Europe

13 May 2025

European Historic Houses represents 27 national associations of private owners of historic houses across Europe. We strongly advocate for the inclusion and recognition of private owners as key actors in preserving and promoting Europes cultural heritage. Privately owned historic houses are cultural landmarks and an image of Europe, but they are also active drivers of economic development, job creation, and sustainable tourism. They are essential to maintaining Europes historic landscapes and cultural identity. Their upkeep generates skilled employment in traditional crafts, restoration, garden and park maintenance, and property management. These activities offer meaningful economic opportunities and regional development in urban and rural areas. The sector plays a vital role in cultural tourism. Private historic houses attract millions of visitors annually, distributing economic benefits across regions. They host public events, artistic residencies, exhibitions, and educational programmes that promote community engagement, creativity, and cultural awareness. Yet, the full contribution of private heritage owners remains underrepresented in EU data collection. We encourage the EC to support the systematic gathering of comprehensive, EU-wide statistics that reflect the economic, social, and environmental impact of privately owned heritage. Private owners preserve an important share of Europes built and intangible heritageoften at high personal cost and with limited public support. Their crucial role must be formally acknowledged in future EU cultural strategies and funding instruments. Support tools such as public-private partnerships, targeted funding, and collaborative platforms for knowledge exchange are essential to ensure the long-term sustainability and accessibility of these historic properties. European Historic Houses hopes that the Culture Compass will recognise the value and potential of the private heritage sector in creating a resilient cultural landscape for the future of Europe.
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Meeting with Clint Tanti (Cabinet of Commissioner Glenn Micallef), Desislava Dimitrova (Cabinet of Commissioner Glenn Micallef)

7 May 2025 · Introductory meeting

Meeting with Felix Bloch (Head of Unit Environment)

3 Apr 2025 · Exchange of views on preserving historic houses in the context of energy transition

Meeting with Filippo Terruso (Cabinet of Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas)

18 Mar 2025 · Presentation of the HHE's activities; definition of the "historical house"; possible cooperation during the stakeholders' consultation; role of Historical houses (micro SMEs) for rural areas' territorial development.

Meeting with Marcos Ros Sempere (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Sept 2024 · Meeting with European Historic Houses

Meeting with Seán Kelly (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and European Alliance to Save Energy and

31 Mar 2022 · The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive - Stakeholder Event

Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU

19 Mar 2021

More than 40% of the historical building heritage in Europe is privately-owned. The European Historic Houses (EHH) and the European Landowner’s Organisation (ELO), which speak for millions of family-owned heritage houses all over Europe represent some of the potentially most endangered and fragile houses which could be impacted by the recently launched Commission’s Renovation Wave initiative. EHH and ELO are keen to actively contribute to the common climate and environmental objectives and are in favour of making the existing building stock more energy efficient. We are convinced that better-performing buildings can ensure healthier and safer living environments for all citizens and for future generations. Investing in energy efficiency can significantly reduce utility costs by contributing at the same time to the overall fight against climate change. By the same token, we see significant potential for job creation, especially at the local level, via the thousands of construction SMEs and craftsmen in the sector. By means of massive state investments, a new market in the field of digitalisation, circular economy, and energy retrofitting can be created and developed. However, it is of the utmost importance to understand that many energy efficiency measures cannot be applied without seriously damaging and altering what is for many the very essence of the European continent: its cultural heritage. The inclusion of historical buildings within the scope of the new Directives risks more than just the buildings, but the wider impact of cultural heritage on the economy. EHH and ELO, therefore, suggest taking measures to acknowledge the uniqueness of cultural heritage within the built real estate sector.
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Response to 2030 Climate Target Plan

23 Mar 2020

We believe culture has an important role to play in the 2030 Climate Target Plan, particularly built heritage. We have a lot to learn from old construction and, therefore, from historic houses. Here is an abstract of an article wrote by Johan Hage, Project Manager for Historic Houses Denmark. His article 'Why built heritage can help save the world' describes perfectly how historic buildings can contribute to reducing GHG emissions. "[...] Construction and use of buildings account for approximately 40 percent of global CO2 emissions. Half comes from the manufacturing of materials, construction processes and maintenance. This means that we must work to preserve what we have and to build much less. And build houses to last and endure. We need houses where the replacement of large quantities of material is not needed - only regular maintenance. [...] We can learn a lot from historic houses that have stood for hundreds of years and still stand. With all the patina and imperfections resulting from materials that respond to ageing and reflect the different methods of maintenance through time. Newer buildings consist of hundreds or thousands of different materials, often inseparable, with questionable environmental properties and with no history of durability or maintenance. Older houses, from before 1950, consist of only a few materials - wood, brick, lime, wrought iron etc. Materials that are long-lasting, healthy and nontoxic, but to a greater or lesser extent require regular maintenance. We must demand that new materials have similar properties. That they can be replaced and maintained and are healthy and durable. We need to create economic structures that promote flexible, reusable and long-lasting construction and that allow for the ongoing maintenance needed when working with wood or bricks. [...]" The full article can be found on page 14 of the attached document. This gives a lot of thoughts for the future. Thank you for reading.
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Meeting with Themis Christophidou (Director-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)

10 Jan 2019 · Speech at Annual Conference

Meeting with Themis Christophidou (Director-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)

6 Nov 2018 · Speech at their event

Meeting with Adrienn Kiraly (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

4 May 2015 · Presentation of the activities of the European Historic Houses Association