How can we shorten the distance between political decision-making and the everyday realities of life and work in our cities?
These past few days I’ve been in Brussels, where, together with my colleagues from Culture Next, we tried to bring a small piece of the answer by organising the first edition of the Culture Next Policy Summit — an event through which we aim to help bridge two worlds: that of political decision-makers and that of professionals working in the field of culture.
At the Summit, speakers included Georg Häusler, Director at DG Education and Culture; Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe, the leading European advocacy network for culture; and John Crowley, Technical Coordinator of the Culture Goal campaign (which promotes the recognition of culture as a sustainable development goal in the future UN agenda), alongside cultural policy experts from Culture Next.
We are grateful to the Members of the European Parliament who attended the session, as well as those represented by their cabinet members; to the representatives of the European Commission and of the 15 member cities of Culture Next who took part; and to the leaders of European cultural networks who joined the discussions, including UNESCO, CAE, UCLG Culture, Eurocities Culture, and the European Festivals Association. The discussions took place as part of a policy briefing addressing three major issues currently shaping the cultural field: the future framework of the European Capitals of Culture programme, the forthcoming European Commission Cultural Compass, and the role of culture in the next United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda.
Special thanks go to the Romanian MEPs who supported our initiative: in particular, Daniel Buda, for hosting the event at the European Parliament, as well as to other Romanian MEPs who offered to co-organise or attended the meeting, and to the representatives of the Permanent Representation of Romania to the EU, our colleagues from the Romanian Cultural Institute, from parliamentary cabinets and from the Commission’s directorates-general who stood by us.
We also initiated an informal meeting of European cultural networks, hosted by our colleagues in Molenbeek, Brussels, at their Migration Museum. We held several discussions with various European Commission directorates-general, and joined our friends from Oulu (Finland) and Trenčín (Slovakia) — both Culture Next member cities — for the official launch of their European Capital of Culture 2026 programmes.
And above all, cheers to the outstanding 10-nationality team of Culture Next: Darius Mindroc, Corovei Meda Adela, Rarița Zbranca, András Farkas, Bruno Inácio, Aggeliki L., Jean-Gabriel Guyant 🇫🇷 🇪🇺 🌍, Alin Sutea, Carlos Martins, Tom Fleming, Dr Beatriz Garcia, Jak Spencer, Marilyn Gaughan Reddan, Immie Jonkman, Henri Turunen, Tracy Geraghty, Anely Šmída Jeromin, Joana Meneses Fernandes .
