FEMP is the European voice for traditional heritage skills and craft conservation.

Members are both heritage training centres for craftspeople and organisations that promote craft conservation and restoration.

FEMP promotes craft knowledge and skills which are needed to preserve cultural heritage in the broadest sense.

FEMP stands for providing and transferring heritages skills, craft knowledge and craft experience for craftspeople from a vocational education background. FEMP promotes cross-border exchange of craft conservators.

FEMP defends the interests of craftspeople active in crafts conservation and heritage preservation at a European level.

Established in 2012, FEMP exists in its present-day form as a European association of CVET training centres and organisations dedicated to the promotion of heritage skills and craft conservation.

The association was initiated by the Council of Europe in 2011 to continue the ideas of its predecessor, the Fondation Européenne des Métiers du Patrimoine.

The roots of that body of the Council of Europe for the promotion of heritage skills and craft conservation go back to 1976.

1. FEMP seeks to raise awareness of the value and quality of traditional heritage skills, craft conservation techniques and the valuable knowledge of craftspeople.
   
   
2. Only a notion of cultural heritage that takes into account its intangible dimension is apt to measure and respect craft knowledge and craft skills for the creation as well as the restoration and maintenance of any cultural heritage. FEMP promotes that this expanded notion of cultural heritage should prevail in monument offices, museums and other institutions preserving cultural objects, and that this insight determines practical measures of preservation on site. The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage (2003) and the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention, 2005) provide the relevant codifying basis.
   
   
3. FEMP holds the view that preservation of tangible and intangible cultural assets is not an end in itself. Rather it should be oriented towards sustainable use and have human development and quality of life as its goal. This is why FEMP promotes an up-to-date economy-oriented approach under which heritage preservation is no longer regarded as a sanctuary but rather develops to become a growing market for local craft businesses and SMEs. Therefore FEMP promotes bureaucracy reduction and avoidance of legislation detrimental to the economy.
   
   
4. FEMP supports professionalisation, organisation and vocational education and training in craft conservation and heritage skills. Consequently, FEMP stands up for a continuous improvement of VET and CVET, advocating European exchange and mobility for craftspeople both in training and careers. Furthermore, in the field of heritage preservation, FEMP promotes cross-border co-operation of craft organisations with each other as well as with academia and heritage and research institutions.
   
   
5. FEMP strives for a general acknowledgement that vocational and academic education are equivalent. FEMP makes the case for equitable representation of craftspeople in international heritage organisations and advocates that with planning, coordinating and executing preservation measures, craft conservation experts be heard on a regular basis, and that craft conservation methods can be applied unhindered in monument offices, museums, libraries and archives. FEMP stands for a more prominent representation of craftspeople inside the heritage discourse and preservation politics.
   
   
6. FEMP will work to ensure that craft conservators can render their services in the market freely and equitably. FEMP will advocate for a better understanding of craft conservation towards heritage institutions, politics and the public at large.
   
   
7. FEMP considers the diverse local, regional and national experiences and established ways of craft conservation to be a precious asset. Striving to maintain the diversity of traditional craft skills and craft restoration techniques and methods in Europe, FEMP advocates that craft conservation procedures be principally exempted from any standardisation.