The fourth meeting of the Public Interest Archives Consultative Committee

©Direction de la Communication / Manuel Vitali

The Public Interest Archives Consultative Committee (CCAIP), created by the Sovereign Ordinance of 25 March 2021 on the public interest archives, met for the fourth time on Tuesday 28 January, at the Ministry of State; the meeting was chaired by Jean-Charles Curau, with Marc Vassallo, Secretary-General of the Government, in attendance.

The 2024 activity report for the National Archives Preparatory Mission (MPAN) and the affiliated Central Records Office (SCADA) was presented to the members of the committee.

The committee members noted the broad range of activities carried out last year by both these government bodies, with an emphasis on the significant improvements in the training available for the Principality's archivists, the acquisition of private archives (both free and in return for payment), and the digitisation, restoration, and inventory of the collections held. 

During the meeting, it was also announced that some of the National Council's historical archives had recently been entrusted to MPAN. This follows on from contributions made last year by the Monaco Scientific Centre. These are the first non-executive repositories of public archives, marking a milestone in the National Archives project, with some of the Principality's other major institutions currently engaged in similar discussions. MPAN's role and the National Archives project aim to extend beyond executive archives to develop a community facility home to various archival materials, particularly public archives in Monaco. These initial acquisitions epitomise this collective project.

In addition to the presentation of the annual report, the committee engaged in wide-ranging discussions, including the management of local authority archives during a detailed presentation by the local authority archivists, as well as the necessary link between the protection of personal data and heritage archives, particularly concerning the need to preserve personal data of historical, scientific or statistical value etc, for posterity.

The committee agreed to several recommendations, including further steps to modernise public and semi-public archives.