European capital of culture: Community action, years 2005 to 2019

Philippe Monfils (B, ELDR) on behalf of the Committee, will be recommending that the House rejects Council's common position on the European capitals of culture. This common position lays down a rota system for the member states to nominate cities from 2005 to 2019, replaces the selection panel originally proposed with a weaker guidance panel and removes the cultural value of programmes as a selection criterion. Mr Monfils is challenging the procedure which the Council wants to use from 2005 onwards for selecting the capitals of culture. In order to adopt the declaration of intention to reject the common position, a majority of MEP's (314) must vote in favour in plenary on 13th January 1999. It is important to note that rejection of the Council's position would in no way affect the cities already selected in a decision by the member states' governments. These cities are: Rotterdam and Oporto in 2001, Bruges and Salamanca in 2002, Graz in 2003 and Genoa and Lille in 2004. �