European capital of culture after 2019

Why not change more?

After decades, attractions of this scale require basic changes: Olympics, Formula One, Oscar, Eurovision, leading festivals etc. The EU froze the basic pattern till 2033.
ECOC shows certain signs of fatigue. Attraction fades. Competitions inside countries usually attract little attention abroad.
Few cities are able to maintain full momentum all year long, lacking the punch of shorter events. Twelve months exert extreme strain, offer too large a temptation for infrastructure investments with sustainability risks.
Opportunity missed: shift to Spring Capital of Culture, Summer Capital of Culture etc. Two cities chosen after competition in the pre-selected countries, and two selected through regulated competition of all European cities.
Opening up 28 titles for competition of cities across all Europe would create new excitement and challenge. (Regulation would prevent cities to win from the same country within a set period.)
One capital of culture at any one time would offer more focused attention.
The actual selection of cities reflects the composition of Member States, to disproportional disadvantage to cities in large countries.
56 cities could get the distinction along the 14 years instead of 28.
For cities in the candidate countries a separate variant could be devised.


					A playful alternative

		In blue: pre-selected country by the EU
		In green: regulated open competition across Europe
		In orange: city from a candidate country

	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
2020	Croatia + Ireland				Croatia	?	Ireland	?
	candidate country					candidate
2021	Romania + Greece				Romania	?	Greece	?

2022	Lithuania + Luxembourg				Lithuania	?	Luxemb.	?

2023	Hungary + United Kingdom				Hungary	?	UK	?
	candidate country					candidate
2024	Estonia + Austria				Estonia	?	Austria	?

2025	Slovenia + Germany				Slovenia	?	Germany	?

2026	Slovakia + Finland				Slovakia	?	Finland	?
	candidate country					candidate
2027	Latvia + Portugal				Latvia	?	Portugal	?

2028	Czech Republic + France				Czech R.	?	France	?

2029	Poland + Sweden				Poland	?	Sweden	?
	candidate country					candidate
2030	Cyprus + Belgium				Cyprus	?	Belgium	?

2031	Malta + Spain				Malta	?	Spain	?

2032	Bulgaria + Denmark				Bulgaria	?	Denmark	?
	candidate country					candidate
2033	Netherlands + Italy				Netherl.	?	Italy	?

The Budapest Observatory, September 2012.