Communication from the Commission to the Council on the designation of the European Capital of Culture 2006
Date: 2003-04-28
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European cultural event, cultural promotion

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 28.4.2003
COM(2003) 210 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

On the designation of the European Capital of Culture 2006

   
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

On the designation of the European Capital of Culture 2006

Decision no 1419/1999/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of the 25th May 1999
establishing a Community action for the European Capital of Culture event for the years 2005
to  2019  lays  down  the  procedure  of  designation  of  the  European  Capital  of  Cultural  from
2005  and  onwards.  The  decision  was  applied  for  the  first  time  to  designate  the  European
Capital of Culture in Ireland in 2005. For each of the years 2005 to 2019, and following the
order  set  in  the  annex  I  of  decision  1419,  one  of  the  Member  States  has  the  possibility  of
nominating candidate(s) for the European Capital of Culture event. According to Article 2 of
the decision 1419, the procedure follows these steps:

The  Member  State  in  question  notifies  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the
Commission and the Committee of Regions of their nomination(s) at least four years
before the event;

A  selection  panel  composed  of  independent  experts  writes  a  report  on  the
nomination(s) judged against the criteria for the action and submits it to the European
Parliament, the Council and the Commission;

After the receipt of the report, the European Parliament may give an opinion on the
nomination(s) within a deadline of three months;

The  Commission  presents  a  recommendation  to  the  Council.  The  recommendation
takes  the  report  of  the  selection  panel  and  the  opinion  of  the  European  Parliament
into consideration;

The Council officially designates the European Capital of Culture.

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As foreseen, Greece notified the European institutions by the end of 2001 of their nomination
of the city of Patras. The selection panel submitted its evaluation report in September 2002.
The  European  Parliament  did  not  present  an  opinion  before  the  deadline  at  the  1st  January
2003.

The Selection Panel concluded that it was not in a position to make a firm recommendation of
Patras for the European Capital of Culture 2006. The selection panel stressed that if Patras is
to be designated, it should be subject to certain conditions.

The Greek authorities gave an updated presentation on Patras’ bid to the European Parliament
on the 20th January 2003. This presentation was forwarded to the Commission by Mr Rocard,
chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Culture,  Youth,  Education,  the  Media  and  Sport,  who
requested an expert evaluation of the documents. After a meeting with the Greek authorities
in  February  2003,  the  Selection  Panel  delivered  an  evaluation  of  Patras’  updated  bid  to  the
Commission  on  the  11th  March  2003.  The  evaluation  was  forwarded  by  the  Commission  to
the European Parliament, the Council  and the  Committee  of  the  Regions  on  the  18th  March
2003.

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In the evaluation of the updated bid, the selection panel maintains its original point of view. In
addition,  the  Panel  suggests  that  if  designated,  Patras  should  be  subject  to  a  monitoring
organised  by  the  Commission.  Given  this,  the  Commission  would  have  no  procedural
objections to the designation of Patras as the European Capital of Culture 2006.

The  Commission  endorses  the  Panel’s  proposal  of  a  monitoring  group,  and  is  willing  to
prepare the necessary procedures if the Council designates the city of Patras as the European
Capital  of  Culture  2006.  The  monitoring  should  take  place  on  a  regular  basis  and  involve
some or all of the independent experts of the Selection Panel. Following the Selection Panel’s
advice,  the  monitoring  group  should  evaluate  the  progress  of  the  preparations  of  Patras,  in
particular the implementation of the objectives and the criteria of Decision no 1419/1999. The
group  should  meet  regularly  with  the  responsible  Greek  authorities,  who  will  be  asked  to
assist the group by providing all necessary information. A detailed assessment report on the
results of the monitoring should be presented by the Commission to the European Parliament,
the Council and the Committee of the Regions at least once a year.

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