IP/06/301
Brussels, 13 March 2006
European Capitals of Culture 2010: meeting of the selection panel this week The selection panel appointed to assess applications for the European Capitals of Culture 2010 will meet this week in Brussels. The report which will be published by the Commission in the spring will then be forwarded to the European Parliament, the Council and the Committee of the Regions. The Council (Ministers of Culture) is due to make a final decision under the Finnish Presidency during the second half of 2006.
On 14-15 March, in accordance with Decision No 1419/1999/EC as amended by Decision No 649/2005/EC, the European Commission will host a meeting in Brussels of the selection panel appointed to assess applications for the European Capitals of Culture 2010.
In 2010, Germany and Hungary will each have a European Capital of Culture. In the case of Germany, two cities are in the running: Essen, in the Ruhr, and Görlitz, on the border with Poland. Hungary has submitted only one application, from the city of Pecz. From outside the European Union, Istanbul and Kiev have submitted applications under Article 4 of the Decision, which allows a city in a non-member country to be designated as a European Capital of Culture (as will be the case, for example, with the Norwegian city of Stavanger in 2008). Article 4 stipulates that only one city in a country outside the EU may be designated as a European Capital of Culture.
The members of the selection panel who will examine the applications are as follows:
Appointed by the European Commission: Didier Fusillier, who was the Managing Director of Lille, European Capital of Culture 2004; a specialist in performing arts (theatre), he has for several years been the Director of the "Maison des Arts et de la Culture André Malraux " in Créteil (France) and the "Le Manège” cultural centre, in partnership with Mons (Belgium); Lord Smith of Finsbury, member of the House of Lords, a former Secretary of State for Culture and participant in the UK’s pre-selection process which led to Liverpool being designated as European Capital of Culture 2008; he is currently in charge of the Clore Leadership Programme, the focus of which is to provide training in the cultural sector for young people. Appointed by the Council: Claude Frisoni, who was the coordinator of “Luxembourg, Capital of Culture 1995” and is currently the Director of the "Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye Neumünster" in Luxembourg; Sir Jeremy Isaacs, General Director of the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden and President of the Royal Television Society. Appointed by the European Parliament: Jordi Pascual i Ruiz, who has been in charge of research at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, his field of expertise being the place of culture in local development; Veronika Ratzenboeck, head of the “Österreichische Kulturdokumentation: Internationales Archiv für Kulturanalysen”, a cultural research institute. Appointed by the Committee of the Regions: Seamus Murray, a former Chairman of the Culture and Education Commission of the Committee of the Regions.
Following Patras this year, the next European Capitals of Culture will be Luxembourg and Sibiu (Romania) in 2007, Liverpool and Stavanger (Norway) in 2008, and Linz and Vilnius in 2009. For more information:
http://ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/other_actions/cap_europ/cap_eu_fr.html
