Nova Gorica Puts GO! 2025 Culture Institute Into Liquidation by 2027

The Mestni svet Mestne občine Nova Gorica (City Council of the Municipality of Nova Gorica) has adopted amendments to the founding decree of the public institute GO! 2025 – Evropska prestolnica kulture, Nova Gorica, setting 30 June 2027 as the date by which the institute must transfer its operations and begin its liquidation. The decision, taken at the council’s session of 18 June 2026, was published in the Uradni list Republike Slovenije (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia), edition 1428/2026 of 15 September 2026, under official reference 2026-01-2088.

The decree amends the founding act of the institute that ran the European Capital of Culture (EPK) 2025 project, originally adopted in Uradni list RS, št. 167/21, 89/22 in 34/23. It is grounded in the Zakon o zavodih (Institutes Act), the Zakon o uresničevanju javnega interesa za kulturo (ZUJIK) and Article 19 of the Statut Mestne občine Nova Gorica, and was signed by Mayor Samo Turel.

A fixed deadline for the end of the institute

The core change replaces the open-ended reference to “the deadline foreseen in the adopted EPK 2025 strategic plan” with a concrete date: the institute’s activities are to be wound down by 30 June 2027. The transitional provisions spell out the sequence of the closure:

• The mandates of the members of the institute’s council and of the director continue until 30 June 2027.
• By that same date, the institute must transfer all of its operations to the legal person that the founder designates to carry out the long-term effects of EPK.
• The proposal for the entry of the start of the liquidation procedure in the court register must be filed by 30 June 2027.

The decree also repeals the institute’s Statut with effect from the day the decree enters into force, and requires the institute to harmonise its internal acts with the new provisions by 31 December 2026. The decree itself takes effect fifteen days after publication in the Official Gazette.

Streamlined governance and activities

Beyond the closure timetable, the amendments simplify the institute’s internal structure. The professional council (strokovni svet) is removed from several provisions, leaving the director and the institute’s council as the governing bodies. The council is now composed of five members:

• three representatives of the founder, appointed on the basis of a public call from among experts in the institute’s field, finance and legal affairs;
• one representative of the institute’s workers, elected by the employees;
• one representative of the interested public, appointed by the mayor on the proposal of the Dialoška skupina Mestne občine Nova Gorica v kulturi.

The decree also updates the institute’s registered activities under the standard classification of activities, and adds a rule that the institute may sell goods and services on the market only if doing so covers at least all related costs. The mandate of council members now runs until the institute ceases to exist, or at the latest until the deadline set in the decree.

What the closure means

The amendments mark the formal administrative winding-down of the institute that delivered Nova Gorica’s year as European Capital of Culture 2025, a title shared with the Italian city of Gorica across the border. By fixing a hard deadline for the transfer of operations and the start of liquidation, the municipality ensures that the project’s legacy is handed over to a designated successor body while the institute itself is closed in an orderly manner. For residents and cultural operators, the decree confirms that the EPK 2025 structures are being converted into durable, long-term cultural effects rather than left to wind down without a defined end.

Source: Uradni list Republike Slovenije, edition 1428/2026, 15 September 2026 (official reference: 2026-01-2088).