Following the steps of the selection committee of the cities that hold the European Capital of Culture, the Commission has forwarded a recommendation to the Council to ratify the Portuguese city of Guimaraes, and Maribor, in Slovenia, as European Capitals of Culture 2012.
 

Portugal and Slovenia will host much of the cultural activity of 2012 through the designation of the cities of Maribor and Guimaraes as European Capitals of Culture for the year. The Commission has already forwarded to the Council's recommendation that the decision to ratify such a process after it has passed the committee on Culture, the selection committee and the European Commission.

Both cities will take over from Turku in Finland, and Tallinn in Estonia, who have this title in 2011. At present, it is the Austrian city of Linz and Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, cities that have the capital of culture, and next year it's the turn of Istanbul, Essen (Germany) and Pécs (Hungary).

The draft European Capital of Culture was launched in 1985 with the aim of contributing to closer ties between the peoples of Europe, and the first European City of Culture was Athens. In 1999 the European City of Culture was renamed the European Capital of Culture and nowadays it is funded by the EU Culture.

That same year, Parliament took the decision to integrate the event into the Community framework and has introduced a new selection procedure for the capital in the period 2005/2019. This decision was taken due to fierce competition from community members to gain recognition, each member now has the opportunity to host the European capital of culture at least once.