The candidate cities shall communicate in writing their intention to submit an application at the latest 2 December 2023, which is one month before the deadline specified above. To date, only three cities have publicly announced their decision to run: Malmö, Örebro, Jönköping.

The call in attachment to this news.

The selection phase is made of two different stages:

Pre-selection stage
The Swedish Arts Council will organise a pre-selection meeting on a date that will be specified later on the Swedish Arts Council’s website inviting all candidate cities that have submitted an application in response to this call in the deadline set below, to send a delegation for a hearing with the panel.

The panel shall assess each candidate city on the basis of its application and hearing against the objectives of the European Capital of Culture action and the criteria as specified above. After this meeting, the panel will agree on a shortlist of candidate cities, which shall be invited to revise and complete their application during the final selection stage. It shall issue a pre-selection report containing a general assessment of all the applications, the short-list of candidate cities that are to be considered further as well as recommendations to these cities.

Sweden shall then formally approve the short-list based on the report of the panel and the Swedish Arts Council shall send a letter to short-listed candidate cities inviting them to complete and revise their applications and indicating the deadline for submitting such applications.  

Final selection stage
The short-listed candidate cities will complete and revise their applications with a view to complying with the award criteria as well as taking into account the recommendations contained in the pre-selection report. Each pre-selected city will send its revised application to the Swedish Arts Council in due time.

At this stage, the panel may wish to pay a visit to the pre-selected cities to get in situ a better understanding of the candidacies as well as the level of ownership among the city's inhabitants and key stakeholders. In any case, the Swedish Arts Council will organise a selection meeting on a date that is to be specified later on the Arts Council’s website inviting all short-listed cities to send a delegation for a hearing with the panel.

The panel shall assess each short-listed candidate city on the basis of its revised application and hearing against the objectives of the European Capital of Culture action and the criteria as specified above.  After this meeting, the panel shall agree on the recommendation of a maximum of one city for the title. If none of the candidate cities fulfils all the criteria, the panel may recommend not to award the title in Sweden in 2029.

The panel shall issue a selection report containing a general assessment of all the applications and a justified recommendation for the designation of one city for the title. The report shall also contain recommendations to the city concerned regarding the progress to be made by the year of the title. The Rules of procedure, specifying in particular the name of the managing authority responsible for organising and managing the competition, the competition arrangements as well as the rules for the pre-selection and selection meetings, including the language regime and the organisation of the candidate cities' hearings, will be available on 12 January 2023 on the website of the Swedish Arts Council.

other informations here.