Cornwall seeks Capital of Culture crown

MOMENTUM is gathering in Cornwall's bid to become European Region of Culture.

Campaigners are hoping to persuade EU chiefs to recognise Regions of Culture in the same way as urban areas under the Capital of Culture programme.

Supporters are now calling on 50 other regions across the EU to get behind the move to celebrate the regional cultural "gems".

Capital of Culture schemes, it is argued, bring economic benefits while raising the profile – it is hoped a similar scheme would do the same for Europe's regions.

Last year, Liverpool held the Capital of Culture crown.

Those behind the Cornish bid believe that the county's cultural offerings rival those of any city.

Campaigners say the scheme has received substantial cross-party backing from many influential EU members states.

However, in order for the programme to be credible, additional pledges of formal support from other EU regions is essential.

Campaign director Miranda Bird said: "A large number of local and regional politicians from across the EU are on board.

"But its vital that we get these formal pledges of support from other individual regions. Changing or creating new EU policy is no easy task but we are optimistic that it can be done if we get the right amount of backing.

"It's time that rural regions like Cornwall are brought into the limelight and given their chance to shine."

Cornwall has already joined forces with the Polish region of Kujawsko-Pomorskie and the Finnish region of South Ostrobothnia.

As a result, the campaign has been gathering pace throughout the year, most notably with the staging of three conferences in each of the partner regions.

Poland held the first conference in Torun in May and the Finnish leg is due to be held next week.

Cornwall will host the final conference in November.

The campaign has also received interest and support from more than 20 other regions of Europe including the south-west of Ireland, Vidin in Bulgaria, South Denmark, Calabria in Italy, Tallinn in Estonia and Thrace in Greece.

Carolyn Rule, Cornwall Council's cabinet member for economy and regeneration, said: "Given the obvious obstacles of things like the language barrier and the fact that this is something which hasn't been done before, we've achieved an awful lot in a short space of time.

"The challenge now is to ensure the momentum is kept up and that the EU regions that could potentially be brought on board are given every opportunity to do so."