After being chosen by their national juries, now Riga and Umeå have been ratified by the Council of the European Union as its European Capitals for 2014 with the publication of the official decision in the OJEU.

Pursuant to the Decision establishing the European Capitals of Culture, Latvia and Sweden will be the two Member States hosting a European Capital of Culture in 2014. On 8 September Umeå was recommended as the European Capital of Culture for Sweden, and one week later, Riga was chosen by the national jury to be the second European Capital of the Culture.

The cities vying for the title have to prepare a cultural programme meeting fairly strict criteria relating to the European dimension of the event and the participation of its citizens. The European dimension is illustrated by the subjects chosen and the cooperation between artists and players in the cultural field in various countries, all working together for the event. The programme must also have a lasting impact and contribute to the long-term cultural, economic and social development of the city.

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.

After Essen (Germany), Pécs (Hungary) and Istanbul (Turkey) this year, future European Capitals of Culture will be:  Tallinn (Estonia) and Turku (Finland) 2011; Guimaeres (Portugal) and Maribor (Slovenia) in 2012, and Marseille (France) and Kosice (Slovakia) in 2013.