In Pécs, a city that was the European Capital of Culture in 2010, an international conference Europe’s capital is culture was held. The conference was dedicated to the candidacy of Hungarian cities for the title of European Capital of Culture 2023 and brought together representatives of 16 cities of former, current and future capitals of culture. This is the largest ever gathering of representatives of the cities of holders of the title, and active participants in the conference were members of the team Novi Sad 2021.

This was a unique opportunity to exchange experiences with other cities, establish contacts and reach agreements on concrete cooperation related to the candidacy of our city. Our team participated in the panel together with representatives of the cities of Wroclaw, San Sebastian, the current Capitals of Culture this year, Rijeka and Plovdiv, cities that have won the title, and Cluj- Napoca, which together with Novi Sad is awaiting the outcome of this year results for the title in 2021.

Mr. Momčilo Bajac presented the concept of our application and explained why Novi Sad wants to take the title of European Capital of Culture. The concept was well accepted by the participants of the panel and representatives of other cities because it clearly and unambiguously indicates the issues we want to deal with, and the problems in the culture and the city in general that we want to solve. In addition, team members met with significant representatives of the European Commission which are directly or indirectly connected with the initiative of the European Union for the selection of the European Capital of Culture. With the hospitality of representatives of the city of Pécs, twin city of Novi Sad, very good organization of the conference and plenty of additional features through which they introduced the legacy of the project Pecs 2010, we can say that this was a very important and successful conference.