The European Dimension is the Pillar. EcocNews initiates a series of interviews with cultural managers and European Capital of Culture experts. Check the conversation with Chris Baldwin.
Today we publish their interview with Chris Baldwin.
After 35 years, does the ECOC programme still have a future?
Yes, for sure. It’s only just begun. Where else can we talk about Europe at city level, at street level, in schools and in migration centres and hospitals? A Europe in crisis needs talking about. A Europe in turmoil needs talking about. We simply need to talk about our futures together. Because with the EU or without the EU we will not alter our geography – we will be interconnected as neighbours and countries for as long as we exist. Economic trading blocs and the climate catastrophe and pandemics are not going away. They need European answers. So, we need to talk. We need to learn to talk with one another across seemingly impossible chasms. We have major differences in languages, national histories and myths to contend with on a day-to-day basis. But we are bigger than those national stories. I am sorry if this sounds all too clarion. But as a father and grandfather who lived through an age of nuclear terror and a divided Europe it feels as if we are really struggling not to return to a Europe of 1932 where politicians and their enablers led Europe to a hell on earth.
Read the full interview in the Articles and Interviews section.
