The report follows the virtual meeting on 16 May 2023 between the Expert panel for the selection and monitoring of European Capitals of Culture, hereinafter referred to as “the panel”, and the European Capital of Culture team of Nova Gorica - Gorizia, one of the two designated European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) 20251 .

The city of Nova Gorica was nominated as the European Capital of Culture 2025 in Slovenia on 12 April 2021 by the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia on the basis of the recommendation included in the panel selection report2 ; its bid book is available on the Nova Gorica 2025 website3 .

A first monitoring meeting took place on 7 October 2021 and the first monitoring report is available on the European Commission website4 . This report is addressed to the team of Nova Gorica - Gorizia 2025 and will be published on the same European Commission website.

The Panel members: Toni Attard Jelle Burggraaff Else Christensen-Redzepovic (Chair) Marilyn Gaughan Reddan Goda Giedraityte Suvi Innilä Anne Karjalainen Hrvoje Laurenta Jorge Cerveira Pinto Rossella Tarantino (Rapporteur).

For Nova Gorica: Samo Turel - Mayor Nova Gorica (ECoC title holding city) Rodolfo Ziberna - Mayor of Gorizia (partner city) Gorazd Božič – CEO “GO! 2025” Romina Kocina - Director of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Nova Gorica - Gorizia and Legacy Manager Stojan Pelko - Programme Director Neda Rusjan Bric - Artistic Advisor Mija Lorbek - Chief of Nova Gorica Mayor’s Cabinet.

Report from Nova Gorica

The organisation of Nova Gorica-Gorizia 2025 submitted a comprehensive progress report in advance of the virtual meeting, supplemented by an annex detailing the status of implementation of the projects included in the bid book.

The report gives evidence of the advancement made since the first monitoring meeting in October 2021, according to the six evaluation criteria of the European Capitals of Culture action.

In particular, the report stresses the progress made to lay solid foundations for the project, with the creation of a programme delivery body under the name of “GO! 2025”, the definition of a clear distribution of tasks and workflow between this body and the EGTC, in charge of cross-border cooperation, the designation of a new CEO and the enrolment of the key managers. The report emphasises the excellent cross-border collaboration that is creating a new sense and culture of being “one city” in two countries.

The report also underlines the progress made in terms of the cultural and artistic programme, reflected in the signature of more than 80 contracts with leading partners in the first quarter of 2023 and in the start of the development phase of the EPIC project (the flagship project) and the Opening Ceremony.

The programme is complemented by a new call for cross-border projects funded under Interreg ITA - SLO for an amount of 3 million euro (of a total amount of 7 million euro), aimed to create a new cross-border ecosystem.

The report underlines the strong support of the institutions manifested at the highest institutional level by the Presidents of Republic from both Slovenia and Italy on several occasions, giving substance and high visibility to the “borderless” narrative.

The report underlines that the planned public funds at the bidding stage are now all secured. However, further negotiations are ongoing to acquire additional resources (totalling around 6,5 million euro) that the team deems necessary to deliver the original bid book programme and recruit the personnel needed to do so.

Finally, the report outlines the progress concerning the infrastructure plan, which in this phase is specifically focussed on the refurbishment of the so-called “ECoC district”, a wide area including the square once divided by the border between Slovenia and Italy and the green belt.

In particular, the plans concerning the EPIC centre have been revised with the decision to host the centre and the corresponding flagship exhibitions in the former railway warehouses and not in a brand-new venue as originally planned. This is due to the bureaucratic difficulties encountered in trying to have the building on a location straddling the two countries.

The presentation was opened by the newly elected Mayor of Nova Gorica who, alongside the Mayor of Gorizia, reiterated the strong political support to the project and emphasised as well the solid cooperation with the Slovenian Government.

As an example, the latter adopted a decision of “public interest in the ECoC 2025 project” and allotted its 10 million euro contribution on August 31st 2022. Likewise, the Mayors confirmed a strong interest also from the Italian institutions at local, regional and government levels.

During the presentation, the cooperation of the two cities “working as one” was stressed, with reference to the organisation of borderless events and to the urbanistic planning. Emphasis was equally placed on the importance of building a legacy in the cultural capacity to deal with the following three key issues in line with the bid: borders, wars and multilingualism. In this sense, in spite of the change of location, the crucial role played by the EPIC project was confirmed, in its quest for exploring history under different European and contemporary perspectives.

All the six Recommendation with all the report attached to this news.