Brussels, 19/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EP Committee on Culture has adopted (First Reading, co-decision) its President's report (Michel Rocard, France, Socialists) on procedural changes for selecting cities designated "European Cpaitals of Culture 2005-2019". The MEPs support the European Commission proposal to finalise a timetable and decide on a method for designating two cities on a yearly basis as of 2009 - one a new member state of the EU and the other a current member state - elected "European Capitals of Culture" in tandem, states a press release.
President Rocard expressed concern regarding the budgetary impact of having two capitals at once, and argued for considerably more competition in the selection procedure. The committee as a whole however, rejected any major changes at this stage, adopting instead amendments calling for adequate funding for the 'two capitals' approach, and for each Member State concerned to nominate at least two cities, so that there is some competition. Commissioner Viviane Reding welcomed this compromise.
The pairs of cultural capitals will therefore come from Member States in the following order: - 2009: Austria-Lithuania; - 2010; Germany-Hungary; - 2011: Finland-Estonia; - 2012: Portugal-Slovenia; - 2013: France-Slovakia; 2014: Sweden-Lithuania; - 2015: Belgium-Czech Republic; 2016: Spain-Poland; 2017: Denmark-Cyprus; - 2018: Netherlands-Malta.