Palma will not be the European Capital of Culture 2031

PalmPalma will not be the European Capital of Culture in 2031. The cities selected by the international committee of experts are Cáceres, Granada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Oviedo, as announced this Friday by Tanja Mlaker, president of the committee. Palma was excluded. The committee is made up of ten independent experts: eight appointed by the European institutions involved in the European Capital of Culture program and two appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The members evaluated the nine submitted applications, including those from Burgos, Palma, Jerez de la Frontera, Potries, and Toledo. Mlaker highlighted the "passion and commitment" of all the participating cities and noted that the finalists have nine months to refine their proposals. The committee will meet again in December to decide which city will be awarded the title.

The Balearic capital has not made it past this first screening, despite the efforts of the local team to showcase Palma's cultural and heritage potential. The selected cities will continue competing with a renewed approach and concrete improvements to their cultural projects, aiming to consolidate their positions as leading European destinations.

Despite not being selected, Palma's bid, known as 'Palma 2031', has been one of the most visible projects of the past year in cultural and institutional events, with the direct involvement of the mayor, Jaime Martínez, and the City Council's Department of Culture. The strategy aimed to transform the city through culture, and the project was presented as participatory and with a long-term vision.

Antoni Riera, coordinator of the bid

The drafting of the project was coordinated by economist Antoni Riera and was publicly presented on December 9th. Riera, director of the Impulsa Foundation and coordinator of the Government's Sustainability Committee, was responsible for leading the expert panels and preparing the 60-page dossier that had to be submitted before December 19th, the deadline for the first phase of the presentation. Sources at the City Hall indicate that Riera did not receive any remuneration for his role, while the 24 members of the two panels each received 600 euros for their participation in eight in-person meetings. The project planned to mobilize 48.5 million euros between 2026 and 2031, with overall investments linked to the candidacy that could reach 275 million euros, including the conversion of the Gesa building, the new city interpretation center and the creation of the Palma 2031 Foundation, with citizen involvement and criticism.

Although the governing team insisted that the candidacy was a project "belonging to everyone and not conceived in an office," several sectors of the city, such as the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Palma, criticized the fact that real participation was limited to the presentation of the project and not to decision-making. There have also been tensions with the cultural sector: performing arts associations and the Publishers' Guild denounce malpractice and a lack of transparency, and have had no say in defining the candidacy's key points.

Presentations and Ambassadors

Throughout the year, several presentations of the project have taken place, including at the Fundació Miró and the Mar i Terra theater, with a strong focus on tourism. The bid had three ambassadors, all men: the musician Rels B; the director of the Atlàntida Film Fest, Jaume Ripoll; and the artist Jaume Plensa. According to the mayor, their role would be to represent the city and promote the bid internationally.

The bid's slogan

The cultural strategy was summarized in the motto 'Mediterranean in motion'Conceived as a proposal for urban and social transformation rather than a calendar of specific events, the mayor and project leaders have argued that the candidacy aimed to transform "the risk of decline in a city where tourism has led to pressure and tension" into an "opportunity" for cultural and economic development. Despite all this preparation and visibility, Palma did not pass the committee's first screening, and the Spanish finalist cities will continue working over the coming months to try to win the designation, which represents European recognition and a significant boost for the cultural and tourism projection of the region.

The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, affirmed that the City Council will continue its projects for the city's bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2031, despite not making the cut to the four finalist cities. "Very valuable work has been carried out, demonstrating that, with or without the nomination, Palma is already, in fact, a major cultural capital in the Mediterranean, in Europe, and in the world," stated the mayor. The City Council will release the details of the project in the coming days. Mediterranean in MotionThe proposal with which Palma has applied for the European Capital of Culture title for 2031 was presented last Wednesday to the committee of European experts at the Ministry of Culture by the coordinator of the proposal's drafting, Professor Antoni Riera. ARA Baleares has requested information from the City Council regarding the cost of the advertising campaigns associated with the candidacy to date, but has not received a response. This is the fifth time.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Carmen Páez, highlighted that Spain has been the European Capital of Culture four times and will be so for the fifth time in 2031. Since the European Commission launched this initiative in 1985, more than 80 cities have been designated with this recognition, including Madrid (1992), Santiago de Compostela (2000), Salamanca (2002), and San Sebastián (2016). The announcement came after the nine shortlisted cities presented their bid programs to the committee of experts responsible for the selection process this week. The European Capital of Culture is an annual title awarded by the European Union to a city to highlight cultural diversity, promote intellectual dialogue, and stimulate long-term cultural, social, and economic development. The initiative, as those present emphasized, arose from a process of ongoing reflection to value the diversity and commonalities of European cultures. The process to become a European Capital of Culture begins six years in advance, and the formal designation takes place four years before the year in which the title is awarded.