The selection panel for the 2010 European Capital of Culture have recommended that the German town Essen and the Hungarian city of Pécs should share this title together with a third one, Turkey's Istanbul.
Asked to explain the purpose and added value of the concept of European Capital of Culture in general, Sir Jeremy Isaacs explained that the role of the European capital of culture is "to invite European citizens to discover the glory, interest and culture of different parts of Europe".
All three of these cities include World Heritage sites: the Historic Areas of Istanbul (Turkey) inscribed in 1985; the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen (Germany) inscribed in 2001; and the Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae) (Hungary) inscribed in 2000.
