The city of Lviv has submitted its final application for the European Capital of Culture 2030 competition, becoming the first Ukrainian city to join the European Union's largest cultural program with a 40-year history. Lviv offers a view of culture as a force that can recover, witness, care for, and shape the future.

There will be three European capitals of culture in 2030. One will be designated by Cyprus, the other by Belgium, and the third will be chosen between Nikšić (Montenegro) and Lviv (Ukraine). For all three countries we have entered the shortlist phase and therefore the cities have been working around their cultural projects for some time.

After Novi Sad, Serbia, (2022), Bodo, Norway (2024), and Skopje, North Macedonia (2028) in 2030, along with Belgium and Cyprus, it will be Montenegro or Ukraine that will name the fourth European capital chosen in the EFTA/EEA area, candidate country or potential candidate country as stipulated in the regulation of the second programming cycle 2020 / 2033 of the EU programme.