Sounds good doesn’t it? And our capital fully deserves this title. Then comes the part where in order to achieve this goal, an investment of 75 million euros is required in the next 6 years. I bet you didn’t expect such a large sum to be necessary. 90% of the money will be provided by the state, the remaining 10% being supplied by sponsorship and private funding. The amount is enormous and makes us wonder, obviously, how and more important, on what will this budget be spent.
According to statements of ArCuB Center director, Mihaela Paun – the delegated official in charge with managing the application for the title of European Capital of Culture 2021 – “is very important to know the budget of this project.” Perfect, we totally agree. Now we would like to know how this budget is going to be allocated. The plan is beautiful in theory; in practice is when we usually screw up.
According to the studies conducted on the development of cities that have received the title of European Capital of Culture, some very important benefits for the life and prosperity of any urban space are emerging, such as:
- Increased tourism;
- Increased regional income;
- Revival of the city image;
- Restoration of cultural infrastructure;
- Social cohesion;
- Cooperation between citizens and authorities
- Solidarity among the political representatives of the city
On October 23, 2015, the Ministry of Culture announced that of all the documents submitted, the fallowing nominations for the title of European Capital of Culture 2021 have been accepted: the cities of Alba Iulia, Arad, Bacau, Baia Mare, Brasov, Braila, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iasi, Sfântul Gheorghe, Suceava, Timisoara and Targu-Mures
The nomination of Bucharest was registered on October 9. For now we just have to wait the period from 7 to 13 December, when a jury of 12 European experts in the field of culture (2 of them are Romanian) are meeting to decide how many cities will be accepted onto the short list. Each city will then have another six months to achieve its objectives. The Romanian city that will be European Capital of Culture 2021, alongside a village in Greece, will be announced in 2016.
The Interim Mayor of Bucharest, Ştefănel Dan Marin is confident that Bucharest will get to the next phase of its candidacy. “I am convinced that we will be on the short list. This title is not a simple contest to be won but a long-term development for the city“.
Although we still have a long way to go and things are moving slowly in our country, we do keep our fingers crossed for Bucharest. Who knows, maybe this time, the 75 million euros will be spent wisely for something that we all can enjoy.
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