History
It is said that the concept for a "European city of culture" came to life in a chat between the former Greek and French Ministries for culture, namely Mrs Mercouri and Mr Lang, while they were waiting together for a flight at Athens airport by January 1985.
The European City of Culture project was launched, following Melina Mercouri's initiative, by the Resolution of Ministers responsible for Cultural Affairs meeting on 13 June 1985, in order to contribute to bringing the people of Europe together.
The European Cities of Culture have been chosen until 2004, on an intergovernmental basis; that means that the Culture Ministers meeting at the Council of the European Union selected cities worthy of hosting the event, taking into account parameters as explained in the conclusions of 12 November 1992.
By a resolution adopted in 1990, Culture Ministers meeting at the Council of the European Union set up a new cultural event, namely the "European month of culture" taking place each year in a city "of a European country based on democracy, pluralism and State law principles" and which was called "Europe in [city's name], 199..". Actually, this event was for the benefit of countries of East Europe at a very specific period of their History.
From the beginning, the European Commission has supported financially these two events, A study regarding the Capitals between 1985 and 1994 (ref : European Cities of Culture and Cultural Months, JOHN MYERSCOUGH, 1994) demonstrated the positive impact of the event on the cities concerned.
As an exception, 9 cities were selected in 2000 as European Capitals of Culture , for symbolic reasons.
Given the success of the "European City of Culture" event –which has become "European Capital of Culture" meanwhile-, and on the basis of the competencies recognised to the European Union in the cultural area (see article 151 of the EC Treaty) and the framework programme Culture 2000, the European Parliament and the Council of ministers gave to the event the status of a Community action by Decision 1419/1999/EC of 25 may 1999.
This Decision set out a very specific procedure to the designation to the European Capital of Culture title. It sets up a chronological order that entitles Member States to make proposals of cities in turn as of the 2005 title and involves an international panel in charge of assessing the proposals against the criteria specified in the Decision. The designation is made by the Council of Ministers of the EU roughly 3.5 years before of the event. European non member countries could make proposals to the title as well.
The Capitals 2005 to 2010 were designated in accordance with this procedure. In the meantime, a decision amending Decision 1419 (n°649/2005/CE) enabled new Member States joining the EU in 2004 to participate to the event exactly as the other ones from the 2009 title.
You will find below a list of cities which were Capitals or hosted a "cultural month" from 1985.
OVERVIEW OF THE EUROPEAN CITIES AND CAPITALS OF CULTURE
| 1985: Athènes |
1990: Glasgow |
1995: Luxembourg |
| 1986: Florence |
1991: Dublin |
1996: Copenhagen |
| 1987: Amsterdam |
1992: Madrid |
1997: Thessaloniki |
| 1988: Berlin |
1993: Anvers |
1998: Stockholm |
| 1989: Paris |
1994: Lisbon |
1999: Weimar |
THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL MONTHS
| 1992: Cracow |
1995: Nicosia |
1998: Linz, Valetta |
| 1993: Graz |
1996: Saint-Petersbourg |
1999: Plovdiv |
| 1994: Budapest |
1997: Ljubljana |
2000: |
| 2001: Basel + Riga |
2002: |
2003: Saint-Petersbourg |
The importance of the event has grown more and more
The "Palmer study", which is very complete, takes stock of this action, studying all cities which were Capitals or hosted a cultural month between 1995 and 2004. It demonstrates that the event can be used as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of a city.
Consequently, the potential of the event was taken into consideration and was considered as under used. The role of culture in the EU project and the socio-economic benefits of this sector have been considered as well. (Economie de la culture en Europe, 2006, par KEA European Affairs).
During the same period the weaknesses of the procedure appeared : lack of competition (some MS organised a national competition on the basis of their own criteria and made only one proposal of city to the Institutions), lack of follow up after the designation, European added value too weak. Consequently, a lot of stakeholders of the event and particularly the panels and the European Parliament, required deep changes in the designation scheme.
The Capitals are currently designated in accordance with Decision 1622/2006/EC adopted on 24 October 2006. The MS chronological order has not changed until 2019. The procedure sets up a competition between the candidate cities within the MS concerned, an international panel is involved, leading to the designation made by the Council of Ministers of the EU. This process is explained in details in the page "designation process".
The Council has stopped the designation of cities hosting European months of culture. This initiative could resume in the future, for countries which are not Member States, since they cannot make proposals of cities to the European Capital of culture title any more.
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