designating the European Capitals of Culture for the year 2019 in Bulgaria and Italy

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

Decision No1622/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 2006 establishing a Community action for the European Capital of Culture event for the years 2007 to 2019 lays down the procedure of designation of the European Capitals of Culture. According to Article 2 of this Decision, from 2009 onwards, two cities of two Member States will be designated as European Capitals of Culture, in turn, according to the chronological order set out in the Annex to the Decision. Bulgaria and Itay are entitled to host the event in 2019.

The nomination for the European Capitals of Culture for the year 2019 in Bulgaria and in Italy is submitted to the following process.

A call for submissions of applications is published by each of the Member States concerned no later than six years before the event. A selection panel composed of 13 independent experts in the cultural sector is convened for a pre-selection meeting no later than five years before the event. It assesses the applications received against the criteria laid down in article 4 of Decision No1622/2006/EC and agrees on a short-list of candidate cities which have to be considered further after completing their application.

Each of the Member States concerned convenes the panel for a final selection meeting nine months after the pre-selection meeting. After an extensive evaluation of the pre-selected cities based on the criteria laid down for the action, the panel recommends one city for the title in each of the Member States concerned.

On the basis of these recommendations, each Member State nominates one city to be European Capital of Culture and notifies the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the Committee of the Regions no later than four years before the event in question is due to begin.

The European Parliament may forward an opinion to the Commission no later than 3 months after receipt of the nominations.

The Council, acting on a recommendation from the Commission, officially designates the cities in question for the year for which they have been nominated.

After completion of the two-round competition described above, the panel recommended that Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and Matera (Italy) host the event in 2019 in its respective reports dated October 2014 and November 2014. Bulgaria and Italy notified their nominations to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the Committee of the Regions respectively in December 2014 and February 2015.

The European Parliament forwarded its positive opinion to the Commission in March 2015.

Consequently, the Commission, in accordance with Article 9.3 of Decision No1622/2006/EC submits to the Council the appended recommendation for the official designation of Plovdiv and Matera for the 2019 European Capitals of Culture event respectively in Bulgaria and Italy.

Recommendation for a

COUNCIL DECISION

designating the European Capitals of Culture for the year 2019 in Bulgaria and Italy



THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Decision No1622/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 2006 establishing a Community action for the European Capital of Culture event for the years 2007 to 2019, and in particular Article 9(3) thereof,

Having regard to the recommendation from the European Commission,

Having regard to the Selection Panel reports of October and November 2014 regarding the selection process of the European Capitals of Culture in Bulgaria and Italy,