European Capitals of Culture

Countries Eligible to Host ECoC and the Processes to Select the Host Cities

The host countries of ECoCs until 2033 have already been designated by the European Commission[4].

To select a host city, a call for the candidacy is opened for cities within the host nation at first[5]. After that, selection processes for several years are done by independent experts over “Bid books” by each candidate city and finally, the host city is to be announced five years before the title year[6]. To win the title, every candidate city delivers various preparatory activities with local residents as well as stakeholders involved in culture, economy, and regional society.

Also, the budget of the European Commission has increased due to the expansion of the European Union (EU) and it allows ECoCs to expect EU’s grants for developments of cultural and traffic infrastructures. Then, this could be a part of the reasons for the increase in the number of cities bidding for ECoC in recent years.

ECoCs are currently held in two cities every year though, the third countries outside of the EU (member states of the European Free Trade Association or the European Economic Area) have become eligible to host ECoC together with two cities within the EU[5]. Due to this decision Novi Sad (Serbia, originally in 2021 then 2022), Bodø (Norway, in 2024), and Skopje (North Macedonia in 2028) will be the third ECoC title cities.