Brussels, 08/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - Just before the New Year celebrations began, the European Commission published its outcomes for the five year "Culture 2000" programme for 2001. The Commission funded more than 200 projects in a whole range of fields, within this framework, to the tune of EUR 30 million. These projects ranged from the arts, to cultural heritage, history and culture of the European people, as well as artistic and literary creativity and literary translation. This balance sheet had been requested during the Informal Culture Council of Bruges (see EUROPE 8 December, page 16) - the main points within it for 2001 are as follows:
1) More than 500 applications were received covering all the different fields, clearly demonstrating both the level of interest shown by cultural operators throughout Europe and the increasing commitment to cultural co-operation at a European level;
2) 163 annual cultural co-operation projects amounting to approximately EUR 14.5 million and 23 multi-annual co-operation projects amounting to approximately EUR 15 million.
3) The cities selected in 2001 were Porto and Rotterdam, which received EUR 350,000 each. The cities chosen for 2002 are Salamanca and Bruges, which received EUR 125, 000 each to prepare next year's cultural events.
4) Nine candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe - Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia participated for the first time this year in the programme. Sixty cultural operators from these countries were selected as lead partners and co-organisers in the projects.
Commenting on the quality of the projects chosen for 2002, Viviane Reding, expressed her "satisfaction at seeing Europe's cultural operators demonstrating a real and increasing commitment to transnational projects" and welcomed that fact that despite the modest budget, a programme like Culture 2000 helped "to reinforce the feeling of a shared identity by providing opportunities for exchanges between our cultures".