Representatives of Novi Sad 2021 Team, met with members of the Creative Europe Desk in the Ministry of Culture and Information in Belgrade. On that occasion, they emphasized the importance of the project Creative Europe for the development and financing cultural events in the city. Team members of the Desk supported the candidacy of Novi Sad for the European Capital of Culture and expressed readiness to assist in the process of developing a strategy for financing projects from EU funds. In that manner, they have started the negotiations for the realization of joint educational projects aimed at increasing the capacity of the Novi Sad cultural entities to apply for Creative Europe Project.

The issue of financial sustainability is extremely important segment for ECOC candidacy and one of the main criteria for evaluation by Panel of independent experts. As mentioned above, cooperation with Desk is of great importance for the development of successful applications of our city. In addition, it was agreed that representatives of Desk become mediators in finding foreign partners for the implementation of certain international projects and to professionally assist our team in the process of planning projects.