On 23/12/2020 the Council of the EU adopted the legislative act regarding the “Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 445/2014/EU establishing a Union action for the European Capitals of Culture for the years 2020 to 2033”.

The aim of the amendment was to give further flexibility to the cities holding the title of “European Capital of Culture” (ECOC) in the years 2020 and 2021 in the implementation of their programmes, due to the pandemic of COVID-19.

Therefore it was given the possibility:

-to the cities from Croatia (Rijeca) and Ireland (Galway) designated as ECOC for 2020 to extend their programme until 30/04/2021,

-to the cities of Romania (Timisoara) and Greece (Elefsina) designated as ECOC for 2021, to host the title in 2023, together with the city of Hungary (Veszprém) designated as ECOC for the same year and

-to the city from the candidate country for EU membership, Serbia (Novi Sad) which was designated as ECOC for 2021, to host the title in 2022, along with the cities from Lithuania (Kaounas) and Luxembourg (Esch).

It is noted that all Member States have agreed to adopt the amending decision, which was published on 28/12/2020 in the Official Journal of the EU.