European cooperation Program Culture 2000: A striking italian leadership

The EU support of culture occurs through the promotion of cooperationprograms on a wide range of cultural dimensions, contributing to the enforcement of the integration process between old and new members and to the economic, social and cultural development of European regions. In this scenario, a significant example of this strategy is given by the program Culture 2000, that promoted more than one thousands cooperation projects in the culture and creative industries sectors, with relevant innovative contents and implying the use of advanced technologies. The most striking feature of this program during its seven years activity, is the high participation and success of Italy's organizations. In fact, over the total number of cooperation projects realized by Culture 2000, Italy's organizations leaders represented at least the twenty per cent. The aim of this article is to highlight the linkage between cooperation programs on culture and the objectives of the EU strategies for regional development based on culture and to analyze and qualify the high Italian participation, describe the profile of these organizations, and to attempt an explanation of this result.