Pre-selection Report

1st February 2012
Nomination of the
European Capital of Culture 2018 in Malta
Selection Panel

PRE-SELECTION REPORT
Valletta 17-18 January 2012

1. Introduction
In accordance with the Decision 1622/2006/EC of the European Parliament and the
Council of 24 October 2006 establishing a Community action for the European Capital of
Culture event for the years 2007 to 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “the Decision”), a
competition has been established and a call for applications was launched to nominate a
Maltese city for the title of European Capital of Culture for the year 2018.

The managing authority of the ECOC competition in Malta is the Maltese Ministry of
Tourism, Culture and the Environment (hereinafter referred to as “the Ministry of
Culture”). The procedure for implementing this Decision in Malta was set out in the
document “Rules of Procedure – Competition for the 2018 European Capital of Culture
title in Malta” signed by the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Culture and
published on the Managing Authority website on the 18th of December 2010 (hereinafter
referred to as “the Rules”).

In accordance with the Decision and the Rules, the Maltese Ministry of Culture is
responsible for the pre-selection and final selection meetings and coordination of visits of
the representatives of the Selection Panel to the pre-selected cities. The European
Commission provides guidance to the Ministry when necessary.

The Selection Panel was appointed by the Maltese Minister for Culture in December
2011. According to Article 7 of the Decision establishing the first phase of the
competition called “Pre-selection”, the Selection Panel has to assess the applications in
accordance with the criteria set out in Article 4 of the Decision, and following this
assessment agree on a shortlist of cities to be examined in greater depth and submit a
report containing recommendations for the shortlisted cities.

The following city submitted an application for the title of European Capital of Culture
for the year 2018 by the submission deadline on the deadline of 17th of October 2011.
Valletta

The application (in English) was forwarded to the members of the Selection Panel after
the closing date for examination. The Ministry of Culture invited the Panel to a preselection
meeting, which was held in Valletta on 17 and 18 January 2012. Eleven
members of the Selection Panel were present – six of the 7 members nominated by the
European Institutions and five of the 6 members nominated by the Maltese Minister for
Culture as set out in Article 6 of the Decision. Two members were unable to attend due to
illness.

In further accordance with Article 6 of the Decision, the panel designated Dr Manfred
Gaulhofer as the Chairperson and Professor Joe Friggieri as the Vice-Chairperson. H.E.
Vicki Ann Cremona was appointed as the rapporteur for the meeting.

At the pre-selection meeting, Valletta was represented at the highest level by its Mayor
and all the other local councils were represented by the President of the Local Councils
Association. Leading figures from the Valletta 2018 Foundation, which has been
entrusted with the delivery of the bid, were part of the delegation presenting the bid to the
Selection Panel.

1 hour and 15 minutes were dedicated to the presentation of Valletta – 30 minutes for the
presentation and 45 minutes for questions and answers.

The Panel carried out a thorough assessment of the application sent by the candidate city
as well as the presentations and answers provided to the experts’ questions during the
hearing. The Panel appreciated the considerable efforts made by the city to present a
convincing bid for ECOC 2018.

The panel stresses that, although 67 Local Councils forming the Association of Local
Councils have joined the Valletta Local Council to establish the V18 Foundation and
would participate in the event led and managed by Valetta, the title can be held by one
city only and in no case by the islands as a whole.

In its assessment, the Panel has thoroughly evaluated the extent to which the
candidate met the objectives of the European Capital of Culture event, as set out in
Article 3 of the Decision and the criteria defined in Article 4 of the Decision: “the
European Dimension” and “City and Citizens”;
· assessed the accuracy and quality of the responses provided by the city to the
questions included in the application form;
· assessed the potential impact of the programme of the European Capital of Culture at
the national and European levels;
· carefully assessed the presentation prepared by the city and discussed the application
with the delegation in order to gain a better insight into their proposal;
· considered that in order to be pre-selected, the city would have to satisfy the
requirements and show that it was capable of ensuring the delivery of the designed
programme of the event in practice.

2. Presentation delivered by the City and Panel's assessment

a) Presentation
The delegation from Valletta stressed that, from its origins, Valletta was intended as a
capital city and an administrative centre. In spite of its small size and dwindling
indigenous population, it has long been a top tourist attraction and highly popular
shopping area. The delegates underlined that although the city was witnessing a hesitant
gentrification, it also contained the largest proportion of social housing on the island, and
offered shelter to disadvantaged minorities including immigrants and refugees.
It was mentioned that, through ECOC, Valletta wished to bridge the divide between the
two realities of the city – the daytime busy administrative capital, with its lure of shops
and cafés and the declining indigenous community, with its manifest creative assets, but
also its current difficult socio-economic realities - by transforming the city through a
process that would foster public involvement at all levels.
Being subsumed by its own heritage, the city explained that it intended to use cuttingedge
arts and culture to create a self-generative and self-sustaining present and future
which would clearly show that this is not a declining city. It intended also to use its
heritage, which formed an intrinsic part of its grand narratives, as a springboard for the
future, to create sound cultural infrastructures and promote cultural education for young
people in order to drive the city’s regeneration.
Because Valletta was presenting its bid six years before the 2018 deadline, it had
deliberately chosen to present its artistic programme only at the final stage of the
selection, focusing first on creating cultural infrastructure and sound governance
structures to generate and support events in 2018 and beyond.
The delegation explained that the cultural programme for the year could not be designed
at the current stage as the artistic director had not yet been appointed, but the idea was
that s/he would implement the eight themes which had emerged through a bottom up
process.
Through the right structures, cultural education and community involvement, Valletta
intends to use ECOC to develop a process of cultural transformation that would bring the
city and the country to a truly international level.
The budget for the event would be 48 million euros.

b) The Panel's assessment
The Panel recognised the driving conceptual vision and long-term structural approach of
the Valletta bid. It noted the attractive presentation of the bid book. It found the
presentation and the discussion interesting and fruitful. The peripheral location of
Valletta, a European city with a Mediterranean identity, situated on the frontier between
Europe and Africa, was clearly a strength. However, the Panel noted that the bid needed
to be further substantiated at various levels, both from the artistic and organisational
aspects, with concrete plans and projects.
The Panel also felt that some of the objectives mentioned in the bid as, e.g., the focus on
young people, were not translated into concrete programme or project ideas.
The bid also did not present any example of projects that would be part of the overall
ECoC programme. However, both the envisaged content of the cultural programme and
its artistic excellence are core elements in the selection process.
It was noted that culture had never been a main focus in Malta’s national budget, which
might be a weakness for the long-term development of the country through culture.
The Panel provided recommendations that the Valletta 2018 Foundation should take into
consideration in view of the final selection.

3. General Conclusions

After a thorough discussion of the bid documents and the presentation, the Panel
unanimously considered that Valletta had met so far the criteria stipulated by the
Decision, and expressed its belief that Valletta had the potential to develop a programme
that would rise to the expectations of ECOC. Consequently, it recommends that the city
should go on to the second selection phase.

4.Recommendations

After a careful assessment of the bidding documents, the presentation and discussions
during the question-and-answer session, the Selection Panel felt that the bid needed to be
worked on intensely in order to reach the required level of quality of such a demanding
event as the European Capital of Culture and to be successful.

The following points were raised by the Panel:

Budget: The Panel requires that the final version of the bid include clarification on the
expenditure for cultural development after 2018. Feasibility studies for cultural
infrastructures should be added to the budget.

Participation and governance :
- More information about the levels and modes of cooperation with the 67 local
councils needs to be provided. It is not clear how local governments will be
participating actively even after 2018. Clearer indications of sustainable
developments in localities should be supplied.
- The Panel would appreciate some indication of how the Valletta 2018 Foundation
will develop into permanent cultural structures after 2018.

Concept of the event : The Valletta 2018 Foundation had hinted at themes such as
peripheral cities dominated by power struggles, colonization, the idea of freedom, free
speech and dialogue, but the current bid is not clear enough about the outlines and main
aims of the event.

Project ideas: The Panel felt that the bid lacked concrete plans to reach the objectives
put forward. It highlighted the need for further elaboration on the artistic vision, concrete
artistic projects and artistic autonomy from the administrative structures, as well as their
relation to a central concept. It would like the Foundation to clarify the terms of reference
for selecting an artistic director able to take up and deepen the vision expressed in the
bid. It recommended that this artistic director should be independent from the political
authorities and that s/he be nominated quickly, in order to go forward in the preparations,
The criteria which will be used to select the projects as parts of the programme should
still be specified, as well as the way artistic excellence would be combined to local
emphasis. The panel would like to see more information about bottom-up public
involvement.

The panel stressed that cultural events of international scale needed to be designed and
planned very well in advance.

It would like more information with regard to the international aspects of Valletta
European Capital of Culture both from the artistic and organisational aspects, particularly
with regard to co-production.

European and Mediterranean dimensions : The European dimension needed to be
further developed. The panel would like to see concrete projects with a strong European
dimension as parts of the programme – in particular co-productions, artistic linking and
involvement of local and foreign artists. The problems and stakes Europe is currently
facing could be taken into consideration in the designing of such projects.
The Valletta 2018 Foundation showed Valletta as a place of exchange between Europe
and North Africa but this aspect still needed to be brought out more concretely.

Education: The Panel would like to have more information about the measures
envisaged in the education area.
How does V18 intend to use the weaknesses of the city and the new infrastructure to
create windows of opportunity in this regard? What concrete measures can link the
ECOC process to schools, and help connect Maltese and European schools? Are there
any planned educational projects, including in human resources, such as training, cultural
management etc?

Legacy: The Panel would appreciate to getting a better idea of the concrete targets and
planned legacy of ECOC. During the discussion, the Valletta 2018 Foundation mentioned
as targets a sharp increase in full-time cultural employment, and cultural infrastructure,
which still needed to be specified.

5.Visits
Four delegates of the Selection Panel will pay a visit to Valletta on the 11th October 2012
to obtain more complete information for the final selection process, after the city has
forwarded its completed application for the final selection stage. The exact deadline for
submission will be specified in a separate invitation. The final selection meeting will be
held on the 12th October 2012.

Valletta, 1st February 2012

The Selection Panel:
Dr. Manfred Gaulhofer – Chairman
Prof. Joe Friggieri – Vice Chairman
H.E. Vicki Ann Cremona – rapporteur
The Hon. Minister Erna Hennicot-Schoepges
Prof. Richard England
Sir Jeremy Isaacs
Ms. Cynthia de Giorgio
Mr. Steve Green
Mr. Sandro Zerafa
Mr. Jordi Pardo
Mr. Constantin Chiriac

Source: Nomination of the European Capital of Culture 2018 in Malta Selection Panel PRE-SELECTION REPORT Valletta 17-18 January 2012

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-programmes-and-actions/doc/ecoc/preselection-report-malta.pdf

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