The Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for the Society opens to a new season for cultural policies, promoting a more democratic participation to cultural heritage and a new scheme for the sharing of cultural values. The CoE action is intending to promote new innovative models for the promotion of the Convention which has also a large potential for the international cooperation in the cultural field and diplomatic cultural relations in European neighbouring policies. Relevant experimentations on the field have been realized in Marseilles and Venice thanks to a strong participation of local communities organized in ‘heritage communities’ and where the past and modern heritage of the cities has become a ‘common heritage’ belonging to the citizens. The local Faro Atelier in Marseilles and the innovative models of democratic govern- ance elaborated in the new cultural movement in Venice, within the so-called Venetian process, have helped to define forward-looking cultural policies and have shaped the aesthetic and conceptual ‘design’ of the new Faro Action Plan of the Council of Europe for the years to come.