On June 10, 2025, the Institute for Legislative Ideas held a large online discussion entitled “Cultural Heritage Protection: Roadmap for Reforms and Legislative Proposals.”

The event brought together over 70 participants, including experts in the field of cultural heritage protection, representatives of civil society, members of parliament, state authorities, local self-government bodies, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, and the UNESCO Office in Ukraine.

The event was held as part of the project “Legal analysis and systematization of national regulations governing the protection of cultural values to ensure their compliance with international standards,” implemented in cooperation with the UNESCO Office in Ukraine and funded by the Government of Japan. For six hours, participants discussed analytical materials prepared within the project. The event was moderated by Anastasia Pezenchuk, head of the cultural and educational department at ILI.

This is the second public discussion—the first took place in April 2025. At that time, participants focused on prioritizing legislative initiatives and discussed with representatives of the professional community which draft laws are the most important and urgent for further development. Based on the results of this discussion, two key draft laws were identified, on which the project team began to work. The purpose of yesterday's event was to hold a professional discussion of the analytical findings for their further improvement based on the comments received.
During the event, the following were presented and discussed:

• White Paper “Review of Ukraine's Current Legislation on Cultural Heritage” - an analytical document prepared within the framework of the Project.
• The Concept of the Roadmap for Reforms - a strategic vision for the transformation of the cultural heritage protection system.

The first drafts of two draft laws:

• on the implementation of Directive 2014/60/EU on the return of illegally exported cultural objects;
• “On the protection of intangible cultural heritage.”

Thanks to the participation of experts and the comments received, the IZI team received valuable feedback that will form the basis for further refinement of legislative initiatives.

The Institute of Legislative Ideas thanks all participants for their fruitful discussion and support. We continue to work on improving the legislative framework and invite all interested parties to join us in the next stages of our work.