On November 5-6, 2024, over 70 people from the library sector convened in Brussels for a two-day event ‘Building Bridges: Libraries for a Sustainable Future’. The event was organised by Public Libraries 2030, together with EBLIDA, IFLA, LIBER, and NAPLE. Earlier in the year, these five library organisations published a manifesto ‘Libraries for a Sustainable Future’, ahead of the 2024 European elections.
The MEPs meet their local librarians
On November 5, library representatives from all over Europe met with the newly elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to demonstrate how public libraries build a sustainable future for Europe through access to culture, civic engagement, and inclusive innovation. During this lunchtime reception, participants heard from EP Vice-President Sabine Verheyen and EP Quaestor Marc Angel, both co-hosts of the event, as well as André Wilkens (ECF Director) and Georg Häusler, Director of Culture, Creativity and Sport, DG EAC. This event also served to re-launch PL2030’s MEP Library Lovers group, an informal group of MEPs that believes libraries are the great equaliser, support literacy and lifelong learning, build communities and support civic participation, protect our right to know, and promote authors and reading for pleasure.
Following this lunch reception, an afternoon session was dedicated to policy discussions, with interactive presentations from the European library sector and partners, as well as an exchange on the 2024-26 policy perspectives for libraries in Europe, with both sector and institutional representatives.
Exchange on EU projects in the library
On November 6, the library participants gathered in the Muntpunt Library for an EU Projects and Knowledge Exchange Fair. This included ignite talks by libraries on various EU projects in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funding programmes. This was followed by a presentation by PL2030 on the upcoming ‘Make-a-thek’ bus tour, a Horizon Europe project beginning in 2025, and a poster session on EU projects focusing on the topics of mental well-being, democracy, sustainability, and digital & information literacy.
The morning session wrapped up with a presentation of the Resourcing Libraries (RL:EU) project’s policy recommendations to support Europe’s public libraries in accessing EU resources. The policy recommendations were developed through an EU-wide survey, partner observations and exchanges with public libraries across Europe.
Pictures by Michael Chia & PL2030