In accordance with Decision No 1622/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Community action for the European Capital of Culture event for the years 2007 to 2019, the Commission presents an ex post evaluation of the 2014 European Capitals of Culture (Umeå and Rīga).
To recall, Sweden and Latvia were designated to host the ECOC in 2014. The panel finally recommended that Umeå and Rīga be awarded the ECOC title in September 2009. In May 2010, the two cities were formally designated as ECOC for 2014 by the Council of Ministers of the European Union.
The evaluation explores the implementation of the two 2014 ECOC throughout their lifecycle, from their early inception through to their sustainability and legacy, and considers the impact of hosting the title in the two cities. In particular, it assesses their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability, draws individual and general conclusions emerging from these two ECOC and considers implications for future ECOC title-holders.
Main conclusions: the Commission concludes that the programmes implemented by the two 2014 titleholders were innovative and consistent with the objectives of the ECOC action. They reflected its European dimension, involved many local residents and stakeholders, brought culture to new audiences (through specific tools and strategies), raised the interest of citizens from abroad (albeit to a lesser degree than expected in Rīga) and are likely to lead to some legacy (even in the absence of formal sustainability plans).
The evaluator stressed the following points:
The Commission notes, however, that deeper assessments of the extent of the benefits produced against the costs incurred will be useful to confirm the impact of the programme. It is now the responsibility of both cities to invest in research so as to better understand how they have optimised cultural, social and economic benefits and be able to demonstrate the impact of the title-year for the development of the city, thereby justifying the value of public spending.
In order to better capture such impacts, it would be useful for the two cities to have longitudinal evaluations, notably to confirm the efficiency of the public spending in the ECOC from a cultural, social and an economic points of view, and using a broader range of evaluative data to support the conclusions.
Recommendations: the report highlights a number of recommendations that emerge out of the evaluators' considerations of the two 2014 ECOC. These recommendations are mainly useful for and therefore addressed to future ECOC, highlighting the need for:
Lastly, the report recommends that the Commission develop a compendium of all recommendations from current and future ECOC evaluations and make these available to candidate cities to help them learn from past lessons and good practice. The Commission recognises the relevance of all these recommendations and will follow the evaluators' suggestion to produce a compendium.