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Canals make a vital contribution to sustainable development
of many regions in Europe.
The VEV project, conceived by Midi-Pyrenees Regional Council with
seven partner regions throughout Europe, is designed to show that
the conservation and enhancement of heritage waterways is a genuine
issue of regional development planning. VEV is an overall project
in transnational collaboration that is designed to produce transferable
experience.
Forging improved knowledge and recognition of the value of historic
inland waterways is a process which several partners were already
engaged in before VEV was launched in 1998. This is why several
partners had already submitted to UNESCO (through their national
governments) requests for recognition of their waterways as world
heritage sites. These are the Canal du Midi, the Canal du Centre
in Wallonia and middle course of the Adda in Lombardy.
Beyond this label and increasing popularity of these waterways
for a vast population of users of all categories, the objective
of the VEV project is to ensure, both for the regional/local authorities
and for the public bodies which manage the inland waterways, the
advantages of transnational co-operation between regions confronted
with similar issues, also possibly opening up new possibilities
of financing in the short or medium term, for pilot projects in
sustainable development.
The partners, meeting in Milan on 29/10/99, thus expressed their
desire to see recognition of the specific role of our historic
inland waterways, in the context of the European Spatial Development
Perspective (ESDP).
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