In September 2019, Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, announced its candidacy for the European Capital of Culture 2025 (ECC 2025) together with 25 neihbouring municipalities under a joint project Ljubljana Urban Region for ECC 2025. And in January 2020, the Municipality of Ljubljana annouced that it had submitted to the Ministry of Culture an application book of the City of Ljubljana with the support of the 25 municipalites of the Ljubljana Urban Region.
This time, on the 24th of November 2020, Municipality of Ljubljana announced that it has submitted the 2nd application book for the ECC 2025. The working group selected for the ECC 2025 preparations, has developed Solidarity as the central theme of Ljubljana’s candidacy, and the slogan of the candidacy is »WireLess.«
The Ljubljana programme comprises 104 projects designed specifically for the European Capital of Culture 2025, and at least a third of the programme will be implemented in a region outside of the city of Ljubljana. The goal of the programme is to respond to the challenges of the city of the future, but Ljubljana is as the capital in solidarity with its region and the country. Therefore, it is decisively responding to the cultural challenges of the region and the country as a whole.
Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, emphasizes: »The choice of the theme of solidarity was somehow natural, as Ljubljana is a city of solidarity, camaraderie and tolerance. It is the city, in which different people live together and respect each other.«
Ljubljana for ECC 2025 programme lays new foundations for the development of culture, based on European values and on connecting actors from the fields of culture, environmental protection, education, science and social affairs. »And if ever,« says Municipality of Ljubljana on its website, »then the theme of solidarity is the key binder we need as a society.«
