EU praised for ‘cultural capital’ initiative

Visiting Brussels to lobby for the election of his city as European Capital of Culture for 2013, Mayor of Marseille and Vice-President of the French senate Jean-Claude Gaudin praised the EU’s initiative, which he says has an enormous and long-standing impact on the cities selected.

“We think we will win,” Jean-Claude Gaudin told EURACTIV. Marseille is competing with Toulouse, Bordeaux and Lyon. Gaudin said he was inspired by the success of Lille, the cultural importance of which was greatly boosted as a result of its selection as cultural capital of Europe in 2004. 

‘Label’ more important than money 

Gaudin said that the most important thing is “getting the label”. The initiative does not cost the EU too much and the city of Marseille is prepared to spend €100 million of its own funds. Gaudin said that even this sum did not represent a big effort, as being the cultural capital of Europe is more of an investment than a return. However Marseille’s businesses can expect to receive €6 for every one euro spent, mainly from the millions of additional visitors, he said. 

“To get the label is to gain 10 years in achieving anything a city plans to do in the cultural field. And we wish to share this gain with cities around Marseille,” Gaudin added. 

Fashionable goals 

The mayor of Marseille stressed the advantages of his 2,600-year-old city over its competitors, especially its multicultural and cosmopolitan character. The fashionable “Mediterranean challenges”, a priority of the forthcoming French EU presidency, were also mentioned, outlining the regional initiatives carried out by the municipality of Marseille with its counterparts from the Mediterranean basin. 

Slovak candidacies 

The team responsible for promoting Marseille has visited all eight Slovak cities under consideration, of which one will share the title of European capital of culture with a French city in 2013. Gaudin said he was proud Marseille was the only French candidate to make the effort to better get to know its “Northern counterparts”, as he called them. 

“Peace and cooperation is not made only by the diplomats. Diplomats speak such a language most of us cannot understand. We are more direct, and I would add, more efficient,” Gaudin said. 

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