Les Rencontres, the association of European cities and regions for culture decided to host its General Conference 2009 in Vilnius under the title of the Vilnius, the European Capital of Culture programme, CULTURE live.
This February the General Conference of the Association took place in Sibiu, Romania, which is the European Capital of Culture 2007 along with Luxembourg. This conference was primarily concerned with cultural politics of EU states. Prospects for participation at the Intercultural Dialogue 2008 programme by the European Commission were also discussed. The idea and strategy of the CULTURE live programme presented at the conference attracted great interest, support as well as proposals for cooperation with and contribution to the realization of the programme.
“We are especially delighted at the success of the programme to interest representatives of strategically important countries such as France and Sweden. The selection of the cities for the European Capital of Culture nomination in 2013 and 2014 is still in progress in these countries and so is the consideration of the programmes to be launched. Delegates from European states admitted that CULTURE live has provided a new insight for them into the capital of culture concept,” said Giedrė Kabašinskienė, the Lithuanian delegate to Les Rencontres and the Director of the Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009 office.
“The concept of the CULTURE live programme is much-promising indeed!” said Christian Denkmaier from Linz, Austria, after the presentation of the programme, wishing all the best to Vilnius’ citizens.
Les Rencontres is a network of elected officials and policymakers in charge of culture from European cities and regions. The main objective of the Association is to bring together policymakers for real intercultural initiatives, focusing not only on cooperation among the cities of the European Union, but also on cultural exchange among European cities at large. The Association currently comprises 32 members, 21 out of which are European Unions states. The association of European cities and regions for culture, Les Rencontres, was founded in 1992.
