COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Ex Post evaluation of the 2015 European Capitals of Culture (Mons and Pilsen)
Date: 2017-04-27
Institutions: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission
Subjects: Belgium, Czechia, EU action, European cultural event, European symbol, capital city, project evaluation

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 27.4.2017  SWD(2017) 137 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Ex Post evaluation of the 2015 European Capitals of Culture (Mons and Pilsen) {COM(2017) 193 final} {SWD(2017) 135 final}  
 
 
The  European  Capitals  of  Culture  (ECoC)  is  a  European  Union  initiative  that  pursues  the 
objectives  of  safeguarding  the  diversity  of  cultures  in  Europe,  highlighting  their  common 
features and fostering the contribution of culture to the long term development of cities. The 
action started in 1985 at the initiative of Melina Mercouri, at the time Minister of Culture of 
Greece.  

Each year, two European cities from two different Member States of the European Union host 
the title. In accordance with the Decision establishing the ECoC action1, the Commission is 
required  to  ensure  an  external  and  independent  evaluation  of  the  results  of  the  European 
Capitals of Culture from the previous year. For the 2015 titles, Mons in Belgium and Pilsen in 
the Czech Republic were officially designated by the Council of the European Union. Mons 
based its application on the synergies between technology and culture while Pilsen intended to 
use its ECoC year to open up to Europe. 

The  conclusions  of  the  evaluation  indicate  that  the  action  remains  highly  relevant  to  the 
objectives  of  the  EU.  In  particular,  Mons  and  Pilsen  saw  their  cultural  offer  greatly 
strengthened because of ECoC, which helped them diversify their cultural scene as well as the 
types  of  audiences  for  culture.  Both  cities  used  the  ECoC  year to  help  internationalise  their 
cultural  offer  and  raise  the  profile  of  culture  in  the  city.  For  example,  in  Mons,  new 
partnerships were concluded with the tourism sector and the corporate sector. 

The action is efficient. In particular, the selection process enabled the selection of two cities 
with  the  capacity,  resources  and  vision  to  implement  ECoC  in  correspondence  with  the 
objectives  of  the  action.  Moreover,  the  funding  provided  by  the  Union  (in  the  form  of  the 
EUR 1.5 million Melina Mercouri Prize) had a considerable leverage effect by stimulating the 
cities  and  their  respective  regions  and  countries  to  invest  significant  amounts  in  the  ECoC 
programmes  and  associated  infrastructure  developments.  Despite  the  different  scale  of 
budgets, Mons and Pilsen delivered their ECoC programme in an efficient way, as both used 
national  and  EU  funds  to  implement  cultural  programmes  of  high  artistic  quality  and  of 
considerably greater size than the cities' "usual" cultural offering. 

The action also proves effective against its objectives and achieved an impact that would not 
have arisen through the actions of the Member States alone, demonstrating a clear EU added 
value.  The  ECoC  action  is  complementary  to  other  EU  policies  and  programmes.  In 
particular,  it  has  been  reinforced  by  and  added  value  to  investments  made  the  European 
Regional  Development  Fund  (ERDF).  The  ECoC  stimulated  cities  to  use  ERDF  for 
investments  in  cultural  infrastructure  and  gave  greater  impetus  to  the  completion  of  those 
investments  in  time  for  the  title-year.  Finally,  the  effectiveness  of  the  ECoC  in  2015  is 
particularly  strong  in  terms  of  the  two  cities  maximising  the  opportunity  to  strengthen  the 
local  cultural  organisations  and  strengthen  citizen  involvement  (volunteering)  and  cultural 
participation. 

Though  it  is  too  early  to  draw  conclusions  about  the  sustainability  of  the  action,  the  legacy 
arrangements that are put in place in the two cities suggest that the impact of the action will 
remain visible in the medium term. The core team from the Pilsen 2015 Foundation is still in 
place  and  they  personally  drive  forward  the  learning  from  the  year.  Mons  has  put  in  place 
very concrete plans for continuation activity including a Biennial starting in 2018, intended to 
be a major cultural date on an international scale that will be based on the values that brought 
about the success of Mons 2015. 

1 Decision No 1622/2006/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, OJ L 304, 3.11.2006 

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The evaluation has also raised areas for improvements resulting in a set of recommendations 
both for the cities and for the Commission. 

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