Pécs plans to sign an agreement with the government on financing for the programmes as early as March, Pécs Mayor László Toller told a press conference on Tuesday, the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) reported. Most of the funding for the event will come from the EU and Hungary?s central budget. A delegation from Pécs will present the city's programme to a seven-member committee of cultural officials in Brussels on 15 March, Toller added.
Bids will soon be invited for the construction of a concert hall in the city, and organisations to manage events during the year will be set up. Plans for a regional library will follow. The projects must be completed by the end of 2009, Toller said.
Each year since the programme was started by Greek Culture Minister Melina Mercouri in 1985, a different European city has been awarded the title ?European Capital of Culture?, with an aim ?to open up to the European public particular aspects of the culture of the city, region or country concerned." From 2005, a rotating system was introduced, giving each EU member a chance to pick one or more of its cites four years in advance to carry the title, with competition among the candidate cities encouraged. EU cultural ministers decided in 2004 that, from 2009, a city from an old member state and from a new one would share the title.
Last year, Pécs was picked for Hungary?s choice of European Capital of Culture in 2010, beating Budapest. It will share the title with a German city, either Görlitz or Essen.
Cities that were earlier named ?City of Culture? included Athens, Florence, Amsterdam, (West) Berlin, Paris, Glasgow, Dublin, Madrid, Antwerp, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Copenhagen, Thessaloniki, Stockholm and Weimar.
