Celebrating 40 years of Europe's 'Capitals of Culture'

2025 marks the 40th year of the European Capital of Culture programme, and this month, representatives from Leeds and cities across the continent have joined together to celebrate everything that has been achieved over the years and map the way forward.

Representatives from Leeds City Council and Leeds 2023 joined cultural professionals, policymakers, panel members, researchers and representatives at a European conference, in Chemnitz, Germany to reflect and celebrate together with representatives from 82 cities, on the 40 years of the existence of the programme as well as to have a joint look into the future. Chemnitz is joint European Capital of Culture 2025 with Nova Gorica in Slovenia.

The focus of the event was the presentation of the white paper “40 recommendations from 40 years of ECoC: Insights for the European Capitals of Culture from 2034 onwards”.

The study makes recommendations in four key areas:

• Strengthen European co-operation: The European dimension should be firmly anchored as a central selection criterion. A uniform branding is also proposed, supported by a mandatory but customisable European logo.

• Simplify selection and monitoring processes: The bureaucratic burden for applicant cities is to be reduced. Instead of time-consuming on-site visits, a fact-based review process is recommended that enables a fair and transparent evaluation.

• Ensure long-term implementation: The concepts formulated in the application book ("Bidbook") should represent binding obligations in future. In addition, a revision of the Melina Mercouri Prize is suggested so that Capitals of Culture receive financial support at an early stage. At the same time, national governments should be made more responsible for supporting winning cities in the realisation of the title year and the long-term legacy.

• Sharing experiences better: A platform supported by the European Union should enable the exchange of best practice. There is also a call for bid books and evaluation reports to be made publicly available.

During the course of the visit, the recommendations were shared alongside the opportunity to share thoughts and contributions through a number of workshops.  It was a great opportunity to strengthen our European presence and cooperation, explore future opportunities and build new partnerships!

The white paper will be presented at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday 13 May at 7.30 pm.  You can read more about it here: ECoC40: 40 years of European Capitals of Culture: Chemnitz.de

The European Capital of Culture programme was originally conceived in 1983 by then Greek Minister Melina Mercouri and was originally termed “European City of Culture”. At the time, it was felt that the diverse and intriguing cultures of Europe were not given enough attention, and the programme hoped to change this. It was launched in 1985, when Athens was announced as the first European City of Culture.

ECoC puts culture at the heart of European cities with EU support for a yearlong celebration of art and culture.

The European Capitals of Culture (ECOC) initiative is designed to:

• Highlight the richness and diversity of cultures in Europe

• Celebrate the cultural features Europeans share

• Increase European citizens' sense of belonging to a common cultural area

• Foster the contribution of culture to the development of cities

In addition to this, experience has shown that the event is an excellent opportunity for:

• Regenerating cities

• Raising the international profile of cities;

• Enhancing the image of cities in the eyes of their own inhabitants

• Breathing new life into a city's culture

• Boosting tourism

The initiative was developed in 1985 and has, to date, been awarded to more than 60 cities across the European Union (EU) and beyond.

Leeds proposed a bid to be the host city for European Capital of Culture in 2023, but became ineligible following Brexit. This resulted in Leeds City Council and partners deciding to run LEEDS 2023, an independent year of culture.

The visit has been made possible through the EU Creative Europe programme.

If you would like to know more, please get in touch with Lisa Turney at creativecity@leeds.gov.uk.