One month after the Commission forwarded its recommendation to the Council decision, it has ratified the appointment of four cities as European Capitals of Culture for the years 2012 and 2013.

The Portuguese city of Guimaraes and Maribor, in Slovenia, will be the European Capitals of Culture in 2012, announced the Council's decision issued on May 26 in the Official Journal of the European Union.

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).

Moreover, in the same edition of DOUE appears another decision that formally appoints Marseilles (France) and Kosice (Slovakia) as European Capitals of Culture in 2013. Thereby, it gives the nod to the reports of the Selection Committee in September and October 2008, to the opinion issued by the European Parliament, and to the recommendation that sent the Commission a month ago.

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 Programme.

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.