FINANCIAL RESOURCES
EU & National Budgets
Budget
Cultural Budgets are difficult to estimate and none of the descriptions below or diagrams can give a clear overview.
In the case of the European Capital of Culture Programme, the financial resources are taken from the state budget, which is increased by loans given to the Ministry of Finance and title city by the European Investment Bank and EU subventions.
Most capital budgets strongly surpass operational costs.
Western European cities regularly have higher operational budgets for events, whilst the cities in new member countries can refer to newly available structural funds for capital budget increase, with the aim to rebuilt their cultural infrastructure.
Figures (*subject to financial check)
The following figures provide an example as to the average amount of monies provided:
Capital Budget/200,000 inhabitants: 50,000,000 EURO
European Investment Bank Loans: 50,000,000 EURO
EU Subventions: 100,000,000 EURO
TOTAL/200,000 inhabitants: 200 Million.
This amount of money would probably allow the building of 5 major infrastructural projects in a secondary city.
Examples of Investment
The European Capital of Culture programme invested 201,250,000 EURO in Pecs, Hungary in 2010 and approx. 660 million Euros in the infrastructural projects of Marseille and the region of Provence in 2013.
Budget Management
In the case of Luxembourg European Capital of Culture 2007, the programme director, Robert Garcia, had a fixed budget of 41 mio. Euros two years before the event in 2005. However, it would have been better to have the financial figures available earlier.
In the case of Luxembourg European Capital of Culture 2022, the estimated budget is 60 mio.Euros and was estimated 6 years prior to the festival.
COMPETITION AND DESIGNATION PROCESS
Designation
The Ministry of Culture of the host member states publish a call for applications
6 years before the 'title-year'.
Independent Culture Experts review the proposals against criteria in a
pre-selection phase and publish a short-list of cities which have to submit
a detailed proposal.
The panel reassesses the applications and recommends 1 city/host country
for the 'title'.
Revised Strategy
In 2014 the European Parliament and Council published a new framework
a chronological list of member states, that can host the title from
2020 until 2033 (see timelines throughout the document).
From now on, six to seven years after having launched the competition
in 2015, cities such as Luxembourg and Lithuania will host the event in
2022.This way a city in a candidate country (or potential candidate for EU
membership) can hold the title, after competition with other cities, every
3rd year as of 2021.
Implementation and Prize
If the city has well prepared the Ministry of Culture may be awarded
the Melina Mercouri Prize (currently 1.5 mio. Euros funded from the EU Creative
Europe programme).
The selected city has 4 years preparation time during which the advisory
panel monitor the process. During implementation, the European Commission
makes sure the cities respect EU law.
Host Cities Preview
Between 1985 and 2015, more than 50 cities across the European Union have been awarded the title.
The following European Capitals of Culture have been designated in
2015: Mons (Berlgium) & Plzen (Czech Republic)
The following European Capitals of Culture have already been designated
until 2019:
2016 – Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain) and Wroc?aw (Poland)
2017 – Aarhus (Denmark) and Paphos (Cyprus)
2018 – Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and Valetta (Malta)
2019 – Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and Matera (Italy)