Bilingualism and the European Capitals of Culture: this was the theme of the panel attended by EGTC GO project manager Micaela Passon on 20 January. The event dedicated to the European Capitals of Culture entitled ‘Let's go 2025: multilingual European Capitals of Culture. Tracing the linguistic diversity of European Capitals of Culture’ was organised within the framework of the 36th edition of the Trieste Film Festival. It discussed the role of bilingualism in cross-border areas, how the communication of events in all languages of the local communities was handled, and the enhancement of linguistic diversity in the rich cultural heritage. The event was held in Trieste, in the Sala Imperatore of the Hotel Savoia Excelsior. Also present were delegates from the European Capitals of Culture of Plovdviv, Esch - sur - Alzette and Timisoara.

The speech entitled ‘GO! 2025: Bilingualism and the opportunities of the European Capital of Culture’ focused on the fundamental role played by bilingualism in GO! 2025, an area in which, historically, several languages have always been spoken: Italian, Friulian, Slovenian, German and also Hebrew. The European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica-Gorizia 2025 will have Slovenian as its backbone, but all communication will be multilingual: Slovenian, Italian and English as lingua franca and thanks to numerous territorial initiatives also Friulian.

The greatest dream of the GO! 2025 team is to achieve passive bilingualism: the idea that people can understand each other's language despite not being able to speak it.