The title "European Capital of Culture" was conceived to bring European nations closer. From this idea of Melina Mercuri, a Greek artist and minister of Culture, the Council of Ministers of the European Union proposed its creation in June 1985.

After several years, this event has evolved without forgetting its main goal: emphasize the richness, diversity and common features of European cultures, promote a bigger mutual knowledge among European citizens, and favor awareness of belonging to the same community.

The winner city becomes a mirror of European cultures and a referent for the 27 member States and 450 million inhabitants of the EU. This title encourages the urban, social and, of course, the cultural updating of the city. It launches, renovates and promotes the artists and their works.

From 1985, 32 cities have been elected as European Capital of Culture: from Stockholm to Genoa as well as Athens, Glasgow, Krakow, Porto, Edinburgh, Berlin, Paris, Florence, Amsterdam, Liverpool, Lisbon, Dublin, Salamanca, Istanbul and Marseille.

The logo has been made by Zaragoza study "Todo Comunicación" managed by the graphic artist Emilio Lacasa. It reflects the pillars of culture: cinema, literature, words, art, architecture..., the walls that support human culture.

The Council of Ministers of the European Union is the only institution with authority to award the title of European Capital of Culture. This title is only for cities of the European Union and is awarded for a year. The European Commission, from its Directorate-General for Education and Culture, monitors the selection of cities. The 27 member States of the EU follow its turn to hold the European Capital of Culture between 2005 and 2009. Two member States are chosen every year. From 2011, two cities will be elected yearly. In 2016, it will be the turn of Spain and Poland.

The election process is divided in two stages:

Pre-selection stage: six years before the event, each member State concerned will publish a call for candidate cities. Cities have ten months for giving an answer, and, in autumn, the name of the official candidate cities will be known.

Selection stage: Nine months after the previous stage has finished, pre-selected cities have several months to develop and explain with more detail their programmes. After that, the two member States (Spain and Poland in 2016) will present one candidate city each country. The Council of Ministers of the EU officially will appoint the two winner cities.

A jury will meet in every candidate State. The jury is composed of thirteen people: six experts appointed by each country and seven from the European institutions. The selection jury makes a limited list of cities to be closely examined.

Only from an emotional point of view. The Internet produces energy and satisfaction on those who surf the Net but it does not have an influence, absolutely not, in the voting results. Only the jury votes. Besides that, the voting pages are usually very simple: several votes by person, without identity card, therefore people can vote many times, many days, from many computers. But the jury does not consult those results. Only the real supports of every candidacy matters and this only can be made through the official website: www.zaragoza2016.com

The following cities have showed an interest: Cáceres, Cuenca, Alcalá de Henares, Córdoba, Segovia, Málaga, San Sebastián, Oviedo-Gijón-Avilés, Tarragona, Pamplona, Las Palmas, Burgos, Murcia, Santander and Zaragoza. But, it is still to be seen how many of them will be candidate cities in June.

The main point of the programmes and ideas will be secret until summer because the competition also includes other fifteen cities but our main assets are these: city of peace, integration of cultures, creativity, Buñuel, Goya, ZGZ Latina, Mudejar, women, genius...

Zaragoza is a cultural city: active, creative, participatory. Our city defends a new model, a different way of making culture: support to citizens´ initiatives and presentation of a Strategic Plan called Zaragoza Cultura 2010-2015 which reflects a new cultural model for Europe.

It is the tool to give form to a new cultural model. A document collecting the cultural "Carta Magna" of the city for the next years (2010-2014, 2014-2016, and following years). This document guarantees the participation, stability of objectives, programmes and projects, universal access to culture, and culture decentralization. If Zaragoza wins it will be a great success, if not, the city will experience a similar transformation thanks to this plan. In any case, Zaragoza will be European Capital of Culture or a European cultural city of reference.

Culture is a tool for changing the appearance of the city, increase the well-being of the people and create jobs. Zaragoza´s model is based on the participation of the whole city in order to renovate the equipments, the tourist model, and investment practices.

An important part is financed by the European Commission, a percentage to be defined is paid by the member State (Ministry for Culture), a part by private sponsors, and the rest by the elected city. But, this last part is not compulsory to be an extra or public charge but must serve to reorder Zaragoza´s resources to carry out a change and improvement of the city,

No, both events are completely different. The Expo was a three-month summer event that changed the city and served to recover the Ebro and its riverbanks, and the European Capital for Culture is a whole-year event, far away from the concept of the great art, that will serve to consolidate five years of work in the cultural field with Europe as model.

The event has served to remodel the old towns of the awarded cities, to boost their national role, to attract many economic resources from Europe and its national Government, to put the city on the European map, and to favour citizens´ access to the best of European culture.

We can see how Marseille, France, is fully restoring and integrating the different cultures living in the city and erasing racial conflicts; Istambul, Turkey, has built new equipments and districts; Liverpool, England, has changed its economic model; and Edinburgh, Scotland, has renovated and widen possibilities for young people.

With a strong bet on participation, a democratic demand in the 21st century. The programme and the strategic plan are made in a single process consisting of a joint decision-making process. The programme and the strategy plan of the candidacy follows a single process consisting of a joint decision-making and the monitoring of the programme through an open process. Therefore, the strategic plan is defined by the own city.

Opened in November, it is jointly made. The works for the first draft have been made by nine themed groups composed of 3,500 professionals of every cultural field and by cultural and social activists, using predetermined questionnaires with thirty points for reflection on them, depending on five arguments and nine strategic lines headed by a dynamizer person. The groups have been: Local and European Entities, Multiculturality, Creativity, Mobility and Cultural Cooperation; Accessibility, New Publics and New Attraction Poles, Innovation and Technology, Environmental Sustainability in Time of Programmes and Projects; Education for Culture, Cultural Industries; and Leisure, Culture and Territory.

In a second stage, the groups formed by local citizens worked on the initial document, the questionnaire and their own experience and knowledge on this field in the following themed workshops: Labour planning, professional associations and cultural firms, solidarity, accommodation/tourism, consumption, woman, childhood/youth, non-cultural professional associations, and neighbours associations. In parallel, the criteria and proposals derived from this participation process are studied in specific commissions with the people in charge of the areas and municipal societies linked to the cultural management and programming, including fields such as youth, woman, equality and tourism. The last stage of this ambitious project is the debate for discussing the whole final document by the new extended groups formed by cultural and civic agents.

A vertebrated and active society is an organized and associated community, but, of course, individual participation is also possible. It exists the Bank of Citizens´ Initiatives 2016, the personal commitment, and Zaragoza volunteers corps.

Through the website www.zaragoza2016.com, all the ideas contributed by any citizen are collected. They are thanked, revised, valued and developed, just in case they match with the philosophy of the candidacy.

They are very, very important since they measure the popular support to the candidacy. They can be signed in the website of Zaragoza 2016 and in the Mobile Information Point that is visiting every district of Zaragoza. The more people are committed, the more possibilities Zaragoza will have to be elected.

There are no volunteers for 2016, only Volunteers for Zaragoza, a body with approximately 3,000 people, being one of the best, biggest and more active in Spain, and that is very actively taking part with the candidacy and for informing on it. There is a Mobile Info Point with volunteers for informing in the districts and during Zaragoza festivities.

The city of Zaragoza boosts the candidacy through a foundation and a process, that, of course, depends on the City Council of Zaragoza, but that belongs to everybody through this Foundation composed of Zaragoza City Council (municipal parties), the University of Zaragoza, the Government of Aragon, the Provincial Government (Diputación de Zaragoza) and the Chamber of Commerce.

Because, until summer, Zaragoza will not be even officially a candidate city; because we are interested in informing people not only through slogans; because public resources must be used with restraint and, until summer and being official candidate, spend money is not logic; because it can be counterproductive; and because Zaragoza bets on real participation.