The President of the Culture Commission says that ECoC bid benefits the community

The president of the Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports Commission of the Portuguese Parliament, Luís Graça, has said that this organ stands for "the centrality of culture in the construction of a community".
A delegation of 13 MPs visited Ponta Delgada, on Tuesday. This was the first visit to the four finalist Portuguese cities to become European Capital of Culture in 2027 (Ponta Delgada, Aveiro, Braga e Évora).
The members of the commission were unanimous in considering that the Ponta Delgada – Azores 2027 bid "is already a winner", regardless of the final result, for having promoted dialogue and partnerships between cultural agents and other sectors of society. The MP spoke during a reception in the Council Chambers.
According to Luís Graça, this process "is very good for democracy, the Azorean bid shows it in the way it started, with the citizens asking for the mobilization of the political class around this idea of a European Capital of Culture candidacy".
"This is good for the community, and is good for democracy", he underpinned.
The MP hopes that other municipalities look to Ponta Delgada, Aveiro, Braga and Évora and realize that culture is a propeller, and can be a propeller for the development of their own lands".
The artistic director of Ponta Delgada -- Azores 2027, António Pedro Lopes, has also pointed to the work of the candidacy, that stands on "archipelagic thinking -- of those who dare, and have the courage to meet others with constructive commitments and the intention to build a future together".
That is why this process, led by Ponta Delgada, has always intended on including every municipality and every island of the Azores, and to build itself in "an ascendant way -- with the people, those who make culture, those who are interested in culture, and with other sectors of society, like tourism, education, youth or science", he stated.
The city of Ponta Delgada, and the Azores archipelago, want to affirm themselves as more than a "place of passage, as a place of potency, of laboratory, but mostly, a place of future" and a "possible mirror of Europe", said António Pedro Lopes.
With almost 600 years of European occupation, that will be celebrated in 2027, the region wants to be a "cultural bridge" that brings "the Atlantic dimension to the European culture" and takes it to "the Americas, to every corner of the world where there is an Azorean diaspora", highlighted Ponta Delgada's Mayor, Pedro Nascimento Cabral.
Alongside this bid, the Ponta Delgada Municipality has created a Cultural Strategy, to be implemented in the next decade, that ensures that the work started with this initiative is continued, regardless of the results.