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VIOLET 1st Semester Community of Practice Meetings – Overall Summary
(Each partners individual CoP Summary's can be viewed in the Library Project Documentation folder)
The first Community of Practice (CoP) meetings of each partner region which include the South-East regional Development Agency (ROU), the Cyprus Energy Agency (CYP), the Public Enterprise for Social Housing and Refurbishment in Andalusia (ESP), the Municipality of Middleburg (NLD), and the Local Energy and Climate Agency (FRA), took place over the last six months. The project started with a kickoff meeting in Tulcea City, in Romania, on the 12th & 13th April 2017.
Each regional CoP was designed intentionally in two different parts; the first one focused on boosting the VIOLET Community of Practice establishment on the political level and to clarify the precise definition of the terms historical, heritage and traditional buildings to find a common base for further actions; the second one was designed to work on the multi-sectorial SWOT analysis document in a technical way.
In Andalusia Jose Manuel Colmenero López, General Director of Housing, Refurbishment and Architecture, underlined the need for an integrated approach towards a sustainable heritage objective in his welcoming address.
At the Cyprus CoP meeting a prevailing view on the definition of the relevant terms was formed:
“We have to avoid the definition of ‘the traditional building’ and only find the common features of the buildings to be included in the project. Therefore, the identification of solutions for this type of buildings, it is estimated that it will have the greatest impact.”
The above statement highlights the project’s aim, to serve as an example of good-practice in building restoration and preservation. Besides expected de facto energy savings, the purpose of the project is to raise awareness on the potential of energy savings in the building sector and demonstrate this by creating the greatest possible impact, particularly on EU heritage buildings.
The SWOT analysis: a tool to identify specific strengths(S), weaknesses(W), opportunities(O) and threats(T); was able to show specific regional challenges, and to build a basis for measures and actions that use the regional strengths as well as the project partners’ competences, respecting the requirements of a multisector approach, technical and non-technical solutions, monitoring and capacity building.
Concluding, we can say that the first CoP’s set the base for VIOLET’s aim to achieve a long-term impact on sustainable development, growth, job creation and the preservation of EU cultural heritage, and that they could again show the high potential that lies in the area which is targeted by the project VIOLET.
