Perry (PPE-DE). – Mr President, the European Capital of Culture programme is one of the European Union's success stories. It gets Europe out of Brussels and Strasbourg and into the hearts and minds of people right across Europe. Cities compete to become the Capital of Culture - which is regarded as an accolade - and indeed they should.

In Britain, Glasgow's time as the European Capital of Culture in 1990 was a real success story. Today it is the third most visited city in Britain. Glasgow's urban renaissance provided a blueprint for others and I am sure that Liverpool - the home of the Beatles as nobody needs reminding - will have great success during its year in 2008. As an MEP from the south-east of England, I am only sorry that our candidates of Canterbury, Brighton and Oxford were not chosen. Any one of them would have been a great Capital of Culture.

As an English Conservative I have great respect for our French Socialist President of the Committee on Culture; I admire the first quality, I will excuse the second! In this instance I believe the majority in the committee was correct. It was too long to wait until 2019 for any of the accession states to have the opportunity to become a Capital of Culture. By sharing the list from 2009, when Lithuania will be the first of the accession states to get the opportunity, we will not detract from the principle: we will introduce the opportunity of cooperation across Europe, putting Europe back into the concept. That is something we can look forward to: cooperation is, after all, what Europe is all about.