European Union
Brussels, 16 December 2008
Three Latvian cities preselected for designation as `European Capital of
Culture 2014'
The selection panel appointed to assess the cities applying to be European
Capital of Culture 2014 met today in Riga and recommended that Cesis,
Liepaja and Riga be preselected for the 2014 title. Latvia should ratify
this recommendation in the coming weeks. The preselected cities must now
flesh out their applications and complete them by the summer of 2009.
Ján Figel', the Member of the European Commission responsible for
education, training, culture and youth, commented as follows: "Cesis,
Liepaja and Riga have invested heavily in the competition and I am
happy that their efforts have been crowned with success. This
competition is an ideal opportunity for the applicant cities to
rethink their cultural and urban development. That will enable them to
derive maximum benefit from the process not only in terms of culture,
but also in terms of socio-economic factors and tourism. The
preselected cities still have to give further thought to some
elements."
The Decision on the European Capital of Culture event designates
Latvia and Sweden as the two Member States entitled to host a European
Capital of Culture in 2014. The preselection in Sweden took place last
week and culminated in the preselection of Lund and Umeå.
At the end of 2007 the two Member States published their calls for
applications from interested cities. Four Latvian cities applied:
Riga, Cesis, Jurmala and Liepaja.
Their applications were examined on the basis of the criteria set out
in the above-mentioned Decision by an international panel of 13
members, six appointed by the Member State concerned and the other
seven by the European institutions. The panel members appointed by the
European institutions are as follows.
* Appointed by the European Commission: Sir Robert Scott, who led
Liverpool's bid to become Capital of Culture 2008; as an expert in
culture, particularly theatre, he is now the international
ambassador of the Liverpool Culture Company; Manfred Gaulhofer,
executive director of Graz 2003, who has also managed many
European projects.
* Appointed by the Council: Mary McCarthy, deputy director of Cork
2005, currently working on one of Europe's largest urban
regeneration projects at the Dublin Docklands Development
Authority; Mary Michailidou was director-general for cultural
development at the Greek Ministry of Culture and has also served
on the boards of several Greek museums and foundations.
* Appointed by the European Parliament: Gottfried WAGNER, director
of the European Cultural Foundation, which promotes cultural
cooperation in Europe; Danuta GLONDYS, director of the Villa
Decius Association, is in charge of many international cultural
activities.
* Appointed by the Committee of the Regions: Jyrki MYLLYVIRTA chairs
the Committee of the Regions Commission for Culture and Education
and is a local elected representative in Finland.
The 2014 title is the first to be conferred by the new designation
process put in place in 2006. It is a two-stage selection process: a
preselection phase to draw up a shortlist of cities, followed by the
final selection nine months later. The two cities selected are then
officially designated by the EU Council of Ministers.
Following Liverpool and Stavanger (Norway) this year, future European
Capitals of Culture will be: Linz (Austria) and Vilnius (Lithuania) in
2009, and Essen (Germany), Pécs (Hungary) and Istanbul (Turkey) in
2010.
Further information:
ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/ecocs/cap_en.html
