Spain tries to soothe millennium egos

Date: 19/10/1995

By Fiona McHugh

A DISPUTE over which city will ring in the new century as the culture capital of Europe may be settled if ministers agree to a Spanish plan to share out the glory.

Faced with a bevy of countries each clamouring to host the prestigious event, the Spanish presidency is expected to suggest at a meeting beginning today (19 October) that the EU should have several culture capitals in the year 2000.

Normally the honour goes to just one country each year. Last year the holder of the title was Antwerp and this year it is the turn of Luxembourg.

Spanish Culture Minister Carmen Alborch Bataller faces a difficult task in persuading her EU counterparts to agree on just one candidate for the first year of the 21st century and has come up with a novel way of solving the problem.

“Spain is going to argue that, because 2000 is a very special year, we should have several culture capitals. Everyone wants to win the honour - even within countries there are several applicants. This, of course, is a perfect solution to a political problem,” said one Commission official.

But Bataller's idea is likely to run into opposition from some member states. “It is like deciding to crown several beauty queens simply to avoid hurt feelings - it makes no sense,” said one diplomat, complaining that the plan would devalue the event and confuse the public.

The informal meeting of culture ministers being held today and tomorrow in Madrid will also tackle the difficult question of whether or not to tighten the EU's film quota regime. But Bataller's chances of reconciling the differences between member states over the controversial proposals for the revision of the Television Without Frontiers directive are slim.

France, supported by other southern member states, wants the EU's largely voluntary broadcasting guidelines made binding. But northern members, led by Germany and the UK, are adamantly opposed to what they call heavy-handed regulatory intervention.

With culture ministers preparing to cut the budgets for the Raphael, Kaleidoscope and Arianne programmes, money is likely to dominate the rest of the talks.