MEPs on the European Parliament’s culture and education committee back the draft decision to include EFTA/EEA countries Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein in the European Culture Capitals initiative for 2020 to 2033. Interinstitutional negotiations are now due to begin.
The proposal was unveiled by the European Commission in June 2016, amending Decision 445/2014/EU establishing a European Union action for European Culture Capitals for the years 2020 to 2033. It lays down a procedure for designating culture capitals and the list of countries selected for this period, viz. - 2020: Croatia, Ireland; - 2021: Romania, Greece; - 2022: Lithuania, Luxembourg; - 2023: Hungary, the United Kingdom; - 2024: Estonia, Austria; - 2025: Slovenia, Germany; - 2026: Slovakia, Finland; - 2027: Latvia, Portugal; - 2028: the Czech Republic, France; - 2029: Poland, Sweden; - 2030: Cyprus, Belgium; - 2031: Malta, Spain; - 2032: Bulgaria, Denmark.
The proposal stipulates that every year, two towns or countries from two different member states may be designated European Culture Capitals and once every three years, a town or city from an EFTA/EEA country, a candidate country or a potential candidate country. A network of European culture capitals would thus be established to provide towns and cities winning the title with the opportunity to pursue the experience and cultural exchange.
The draft legislative resolution was endorsed by 29 to 1. After the vote, MEPs gave a negotiating mandate (which needs to be endorsed by the April plenary) to rapporteur Santiago Fisas Ayxelà (EPP, Spain) to enter negotiations with the Council. The latter adopted its general guidelines on this subject in November 2016. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)