Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

2. Session /Séance. Regional (trans-border) Cooperation / Coopération régionale (transfrontaliere) - Sturm, Joachim: Perspectives for trans-border regional Cooperation: The Case of the Upper Rhine Zone / L’entente Rhénane d’archivistes municipaux (Erasm) (english 123 - français 134)

Indeed, the recognition of associations as important bodies within the social and cultural life of the area gave ERASM public respectability. As a result of its recognised legal status, which was established by the registration of the constitution in the court at Strasbourg, ERASM can claim its place amongst the associations which shape cultural life along the Upper Rhine.

If it is a matter of obtaiming grants from public sources to carry out a project, of taking an official position or of stating its position relating to the archival state of affairs, ERASM provides trans-border cultural and historical activity in the region with an appreciated and valued structure. It should not be forgotten that ERASM is made up of public officials, who are subject to the law relating to the public service, which imposes on them a duty not to disclose official information gained in the exercise of their duties.

In general, a civil servant is bound to refrain from commenting on the situation in any foreign country visited. In this respect, the status of the association allows boundaries to be crossed. The offices of the association receive statements of opinion from members and pass them on by virtue of their status as a corporate body. Without this, it would, in theory, be difficult to pursue effective international cooperation, closely linked to regional cultural policy without exposing part of the membership to the charge of breaching mational sovereignty.

Nevertheless, the fact that this organisation of municipal archivists in the region of the Rhine has never been faced with this diplomatic hurdle demonstrates the progress of European thinking in the field of international cooperation in a tripartite cultural policy. Given this, achievement of associative status would have been almost unnecessary.

All of this is to say that meetings with local politicians responsible for archive services and cultural policy regularly figure in the programme of meetings. This is another important feature of the international cooperation of ERASM which allows opinions to be exchanged and transferred and political difficulties to be overcome so as to assist the development of a form of archive administration, adapted to the needs of the public within the frame work of municipal cultural policies.

This international cooperation along with the strong social role of the association, moreover, explains the establishment of an information network, which speeds up the exchange of data about sources and historical knowledge as well as about professional management and techniques.

Freed from the sluggishness of official channels when seeking to obtain this or that piece of information about archives held on the other side of the Rhine, full details can be gleaned by the way during meetings or simply by a telephone call. How is it possible not to be grateful for such a rapid means of communication in an age when it is no longer possible to be unware that information is or can be a profitable commodity whose accumulation is measured according to the cost of time and processing.

2. Session/Séance: Sturm, Trans-border Cooperation: Upper Rhine Zone

129