The European Union has many “Cultural and creative” cities. This was shown in a new tool published by the European Commission on Thursday 6 July in an evaluation it made of the strengths and weaknesses of European cities in this domain.
This Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor provides comparative data on the results of European cities on the basis of nine different dimensions reflecting “Cultural vibrancy” (the cultural ‘pulse' of a city in terms of cultural infrastructure and participation in culture, “Creative economy” (job creation and innovative capacity) and an “Enabling environment” (tangible and intangible assets that help creative talent). It examines 168 selected cities in 30 European countries (EU28, plus Norway and Switzerland), including the 93 cities which have been or will be European Capitals of Culture, 22 UNESCO Creative Cities, 53 cities hosting at least two regular international cultural festivals and 30 cities that were capitals of culture in the countries covered.
This tool shows that the ‘ideal' Cultural and Creative City in Europe would be an amalgam of the Human Capital & Education of Leuven (Belgium), the New Jobs in Creative Sectors of Umeå (Sweden), the Intellectual Property & Innovation of Eindhoven (Netherlands) the Openness, Tolerance & Trust of Glasgow (UK), Cork (Ireland) for its cultural sites, the Local & International Connections of Utrecht (Netherlands) and Paris (France), for its attractiveness and cultural participation, as well as its knowledge-based jobs.
Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Culture stated, “The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor highlights successful European cities that have found their own ways of using the potential of culture and creativity to drive development, innovation and job creation and improve quality of life for citizens”. He added, “It puts sound evidence at the disposal of policy makers to help them identify where they fare well and where further improvement is desirable."
The Commission warned that this was not a static exercise and that the monitor would be updated every two years “in order to make sure that it remains both conceptually and statistically sound across countries, cities and time, and that progress can be tracked”. A smartphone application will also be launched in 2018 as a means of providing a comprehensive profile of cultural and creative cities on the basis of factual data and citizens’ opinions. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)