More than 100 cities from all over Europe are actively involved in the Culture Forum of EUROCITIES which is chaired by the City of Nottingham. The work of the Culture Forum aims to strengthen the position of the cities with particular focus on cultural issues in the respective European regions and in the process of European unification. The Culture Forum meets on average three times a year and came together in Leipzig in July 2000.

One of the main goals of the Forum is to bring the requirements of cities and especially their needs in the field of cultural politics into the decision making process of the EU. An example for the work of the Forum is the creation of a platform for the discussion of European cultural politics on the basis of the policy paper "Culture, the engine of the 21st century" from 2001. The Forum actively participates in the European debate about the future of the Union with a particular focus on cultural issues. Additionally, the Forum has evaluated the cities’ experiences with the funding programme "Culture 2000" and drawn conclusions about the opportunities and limits of this programme for discussion with the respective decision-makers.

Moreover, the Culture Forum fulfils classical network functions with regard to cultural topics:

• exchange of expertise on issues like the application of the cities for the annual award of the title "European Cultural Capital" and the organisation of related events, or on matters of cultural revitalisation of former industrial areas,*
  
• support in finding partners for international projects like the Culture 2000 programme,*
  
• collection and, in some cases publication of "Good Practice" guides for culturally relevant topics like the brochure on youth culture (2000) or the brochure "Culture and ICT" (2001)*
  

One of the results of the Forum's networking efforts is the EUROCULT 21 project which receives full EU funding for a period of three years.

Leipzig as a city of culture has been actively involved in this Forum for several years. Different interesting projects within the City of Leipzig have been presented to a wide auditorium.

Cities have always been and will continue to be the centres of cultural and artistic development in Europe. The members of Culture Forum apply the term "culture" to a wide range of issues. They are convinced that the importance of culture will increase in the course of the 21st century and that it will provide answers to many modern urban challenges (like urban development, development of a multicultural society, employment issues, tourism).

Currently, the Forum consists of the following working groups:

• Cultural Access and Entitlement
  
• Culture and Young People
  
• Resources for Culture
  
• Creative Industries
  

for matters relating to Leipzig's contributions in the Forum:

Office for European and International Affairs, City of Leipzig

Dr. Caren Marusch-Krohn

Phone: +49 0341 123-2067
E-Mail: caren.marusch@leipzig.de