There were only two cities on the shortlist: Larnaca and Limassol. However, the panel chose Larnaca.
In 2030, there will therefore be three European Capitals of Culture: Larnaca (Cyprus), Niksic (Montenegro) and Leuven (Belgium).

The dossier is entitled Common Ground. Below is the introduction.

The year 2030 stands as a powerful milestone for Europe — a crossroads where history, politics and culture converge. It marks eighty years since the Schuman Declaration, the seed from which the European project first took root. It also marks forty-five years since the birth of the European Capital of Culture, nearly half a century of cities weaving stories of shared belonging. And it is the year set by the European Green Deal as a turning point on the path to climate neutrality — a horizon of transformation and hope.

Yet five years earlier, in 2025, we stand in a moment of turbulence. We witness the deepen ing of polarization, the relentless rise of nationalism and the far right that shakes the very foundations of the European project. We feel the intensifying weight of the climate crisis, and we face what may be the greatest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War: a crisis of anthropia. From the pre-selection phase until now, this reality has not shifted.

Neither has our belief. Europe must urgently turn from a culture that glorifies strength and individualism to one that embraces togetherness, vulnerability and care. Common Ground is our answer to this call. Our concept remains as it began: a shared vision of Larnaka as a living laboratory, a place where Europe can be reimagined as a space of togetherness, as a democracy of care. It proposes new ways of seeing and hearing one another, new physical and digital spaces for dialogue, and new bridges between Europe and the Middle East. It is a pledge to place culture at the heart of what we share — the fertile soil from which common narratives and shared futures can take root and flourish.

We believe, still, that Larnaka — the place where some of the first European communities emerged, a city of refugees, a gateway between continents, a meeting ground where people of different origins have lived side by side for millennia — is an ideal place for Europe to reflect upon and re-embrace anthropia: the deep human values that bind us together.

For us, the people of Larnaka, 2025 marks the culmination of an unprecedented journey for our city — a journey of looking ahead, of facing the challenges of our time: the challenges of our home, of Europe, of ourselves as individuals and as citizens of a shared world. It has been a process of co-creating physical, mental and emotional Common Grounds, a collective act of imagining a brighter future. This vision is rooted in Larnaka’s lived experience — its histories of displacement, its woven identities, its culture of care — but it speaks to Europe’s shared tomorrow.