The untimely death of the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, caused deep pain throughout Europe and also in the EcocNews Team who had met him personally on 20 December 2019 at the closing of the Matera 2019 cultural program. In a few hours he made us understand that a smile coincides with authority and that, as he told us, "beauty comes from freedom".

David Sassoli was a friend of culture and the European capitals of culture. During the press conference in Matera he said: "We will not vote that budget of the European Commission, we as the unanimity of the European Parliament, that budget that cuts funds for culture by 20 percent". EcocNews wants to remember the great personality of David Sassoli by publishing his speech, in English, for the Matera 2019 monitoring report "Matera is a producer of culture", his extraordinary greeting at the end of the cultural program, in italian, and some videos of that memorable day.

Hi, David.

Perform Europe is an EU-funded project which aims to rethink cross-border performing arts presentation in a more inclusive, sustainable and balanced way, in the 40 countries of Creative Europe and the UK.

 110+ European cultural networks sent an open letter to the EU National Governments today, demanding to include culture in their recovery strategies and reactivate the cultural life in Europe.

The presidents of the Parliament, the Council and the European Commission presented the joint declaration on the conference on the Future of Europe. The Joint Declaration on the Conference on the Future of Europe is very important for European cities and citizens and, in particular, for the European Capital of Culture program. The Declaration, in fact, enhances and strengthens the role of citizens for the dissemination of a European culture that overcomes nationalisms. But the word culture is missing. There is still time to rediscover it.