Dundee seeks culture city legal challenge

● City joins forces with rivals to urge government to contest UK’S ban

Dundee wants to challenge the “legitimacy” of a ban on the UK hosting the European Capital of Culture title over Brexit.

Leaders of its bid are joining forces with rival cities to seek a legal challenge against the European Commission decision, which emerged after the final bid had been submitted.

Dundee, Leeds, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Belfast and Derry-londonderry want the UK Government to pursue legal action on their behalf.

The move emerged after crisis talks with officials from the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) in London, which were held in the same week when a final shortlist was due to be announced.

A joint statement said the bidders – Dundee, Leeds, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Belfast and Derry-londonderry – were “encouraged” by a commitment to try to resolve the issue with the EU.

Dundee City Council leader John Alexander has already insisted Dundee’s ambitions were not “dead in the water”. While European Commission president Jean-claude Juncker has been urged to “reverse” the European Commission decision by MPS representing the five cities which entered the contest launched by the UK Government a year ago.

They discovered last week that the European Commission had cancelled the UK’S right to host the title due its decision to withdraw from the EU. Its official statement ruling: “The selection process should be immediately discontinued.”

The joint statement said: “The five cities were united in their desire to find solutions which will enable them to realise their cultural ambitions and further develop their cultural integration with people across Europe.

“The meeting with DCMS was positive and we were encouraged by their commitment to try and resolve this issue with the European Commission and agree a clear way forward for the cities involved. We urged the department to continue its negotiations with the European Commission on the legitimacy of its latest decision.

“In particular we wish to highlight that the announcement by the European Commission counters a very recent decision of the European Parliament in June 2017 and of the European Council in September 2017 which includes a calendar confirming the UK as the host country in 2023.

“In addition we are seeking clarity given that the United Kingdom has not yet left the EU and the terms of that departure are not yet agreed. We have collectively therefore requested that DCMS takes further advice on the legal status of the announcement as a matter of urgency.”

A £128 million boost for Dundee’s economy and around 16,000 new jobs were predicted to be generated by the city’s £40m programme of events, which has been in development since 2013, when it lost out to Hull in a bid to be crowned UK City of Culture.

Scottish culture Fiona Hyslop said: “I’m extremely disappointed at the decision of the European Commission given that the amount of time, effort and expense the Dundee team (and the other four areas) have put into developing their bid could now be wasted as a consequence of the UK Government’s Brexit policy.

“Last week I spoke to Dundee City Council’s leader to offer my full support and I wrote to the UK Government and European Commission to understand the potential implications of this situation and to establish what action needs to be taken in order to address it. It is right the DCMS explore all options available and my officials remain in contact with them and Dundee’s bid team about this.”

A spokeswoman for the DCMS said “urgent discussions” were ongoing with the European Commission.

She added: “We remain committed to working with the five UK cities that have submitted bids to help them realise their cultural ambitions.”