European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is the preeminent initiative of the European Union in the field of culture, allowing European cities that are selected each year to present their cultural heritage and everything they have to offer in terms of culture to the greater European audience. The initiative started in 1985 when European culture ministers, upon the proposal of then Greek culture minister Melina Mercouri, adopted a resolution providing for an annual appointment of a “European City of Culture”. The project was later renamed “European Capital of Culture”. The primary aim of the ECoC initiative is to affirm the wealth and diversity of European cultures and our common cultural heritage, as well as to foster intercultural dialogue and improve understanding between European citizens.

Since 1985, 60 cities have been given the ECoC title, 18 among which have been state capitals: Athens in 1985, Amsterdam in 1987, Berlin in 1988, Paris in 1989, Dublin in 1991, Madrid in 1992, Lisbon in 1994, Luxembourg in 1995 and 2007, Copenhagen in 1996, Stockholm in 1998, Brussels, Helsinki, Reykjavik and Prague in 2000, Vilnius in 2009, Tallinn in 2011, Riga in 2014 and Valletta in 2018.

Procedure for the selection of the city to be awarded the ECoC 2025 title:

February 22, 2019 -  The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia issues a call for candidate cities for ECoC 2025.

December 31, 2019 -  Deadline for the submission of applications. The Ministry is responsible for the organization and management of the competition, while an international expert council will handle the implementation of the selection procedure. The Ministry will appoint two members of the expert council. 

February 2020 - The panel publishes a shortlist of candidate cities.

December 2020 - One of the cities is selected to become the European Capital of Culture 2025. The ECoC 2025 title will be held by one Slovenian and one German city. The EU has determined in advance the sequence of countries eligible to host the ECoC from 2020 to 2033. The selected Slovenian city will share its title with one of the following German candidate cities: Magdeburg, Nuremberg, Dresden, Chemnitz, Hildesheim, Hannover, Gera or Zittau.