Europe Day is Coming Soon!

In one month, May 9th will mark Europe Day, an important day for all Europeans to celebrate our shared heritage, cooperation, and the ongoing pursuit of unity.

Join our ‘Culture Leads the Way’ event at H’ART Museum on how culture plays a leading role in shaping our shared future, a collaboration by DutchCulture | Creative Europe Desk NL, EIT Culture & Creativity, H’ART Museum and the European Cultural Foundation. The various sessions during the day explore how arts and culture can strengthen democracy for all Europeans.

As ECF we have dedicated a session to our Cultural Deal for Europe campaign. In that session our Head of Public Policy Isabelle Schwarz, Leanne Hoogwaerts, Europa Platform coordinator for Kunsten ‘92 and boardmember Culture Action Europe, and Mafalda Dâmaso, European University Institute and Erasmus University Rotterdam will touch on the questions how culture can position Europe as a soft power, and how culture helps connecting the local to the European. Learn more about this event and register via this link.

On the occasion of Europe Day, we launch our 2025 annual magazine ‘Common Ground’ at Atheaneum Nieuwscentrum at 17:30h. Contributions by Theresa Kuhn, Full Professor at the Capacity group European Studies, University of Amsterdam and academic director of the Amsterdam Center of European Studies (ACES), Arnold van Bruggen, journalist, filmmaker and researcher, who since 2020 works on The Europeans, a portrait of modern Europe, and André Wilkens, Director of the European Cultural Foundation.

The magazine contents range from a manifesto for a European digital public space to photography-essays from Kyiv and south-western Spain, from highighting ECF programmes to a graphic novel on the European Parliament, from an essay by philosopher Alicja Gescinksa to infographs on European sentiments, the magazine brings together the many different Europes we live in.

You can browse our downloads section for earlier editions.

In the early evening we welcome you at the event ‘Europe Up for Grabs? How to Reclaim a Continent?’ at SPUI25, co-organised by DutchCulture and the European Cultural Foundation, generously supported by the European Commission Representation in the Netherlands. The Europeans podcast will moderate a public conversation on the challenges to European togetherness and how we can collectively address them. Speakers Alberto Alemanno (founder of The Good Lobby ), awarded Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra (working on The Europeans, a portrait of modern Europe), Ukrainian artist Yuliia Elyas  (co-curator of Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary), and journalist Gatool Katawazi will touch on what’s there to celebrate on May 9, explore if and how we may reclaim ownership of Europe, and whether that’s through storytelling, citizen engagement or the arts.  Learn more about this event and reserve your free tickets via this link.

More of a night-owl? De Kiesmannen got you covered at their EuropaNacht: Shaky Grounds in Paradiso, a clubnight at the nexus of culture, ideas and music. As ECF we have invited The Europeans podcast to publicly interview Rob Hornstra (working on The Europeans, a portrait of modern Europe) and Ukrainian artist Yuliia Elyas  (co-curator of Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary).

We will also bring our #MyEuropeDayOff campaign to Paradiso collecting as many stories and ideas on how you would celebrate Europe Day if it were a public holiday for all Europeans?

Are you not in Amsterdam, but celebrating Europe Day? We love to hear from you! Visit our dedicated website EUROPEDAY.EU to participate in the #MyEuropeDayOff campaign! Or look up a Europe Day event in your surroundings in our calendar overview. Share your stories and ideas and join the movement!

As has grown into a tradition, our friends at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam open their archives around Europe Day and invite Europeans to see one of their acclaimed documentaries for free. This year they have selected Giulia Giapponesi’s documentary Bella Ciao, which premiered in 2022. This documentary will be available for free for the first 250 viewers on May 9, May 10 and May 11. Godere!

For decades, wherever people have fought against injustice, they have sung “Bella ciao.” It is said to have been the anthem of Italian partisans fighting against fascism in the Second World War, but there are those who doubt the truth of this. The origins of the song are unclear. Was it a folk song favored by exploited workers in the rice fields in Italy? The accounts of various speakers are richly illustrated with archive material.

Ultimately, the song’s origins are less important than what it means to the people who sing it. A Kurdish woman talks about the magical moment she first heard “Bella ciao” as a child, when it was sung during a demonstration—in the banned Kurdish language. In the film, the song connects the struggles for liberation by different generations in various countries. The main focus is on Italy, Turkey and Iraq, all countries in which democracy is under attack to a greater or lesser degree.

Click the button below to proceed to the dedicated IDFA page. [link forthcoming]