From the total ECoC budget of €26 million, almost €1 million remains available for use in 2025. This will have to be used to continue some of the ECoC events as well as tin the production of the required final documentation.

A full report on the impact of the ECoC will be ready by September. The City of Tartu will contribute €800,000 while the other municipalities of South Estonia will contribute €163,000 to the budget for this year. The Capital of Culture, together with the Union of Local Authorities of Tartu County, will receive an additional €0.5 million in external funding over the next four years.

"The issue is how to measure the legacy of the Capital of Culture, how to measure the cooperation that has been achieved and how to take that forward in these regions. In the end, there will be a longer report, in which each ECoC will present its own system for how this cooperation could be continued in the future," said Kuldar Leis, CEO of SA Tartu2024.

Tartu 2024's organizers hope  the cooperation between municipalities established by being part of the European Capital of Culture will continue in the future. One possibility they envision is the formation of a new organization as part of the development plan for South Estonia, which is currently in the process of being drafted.

"This [development plan] is between the counties of South Estonia, which, as the clear center, Tartu ought to lead, as the region mostly overlaps with that of the ECoC. When the development agreement is signed in the future, the main focus will be on the economy, but the idea is to bring in the cultural sector, environmental issues and accessibility as well as working with young people in addition to the economy. I think the development agreement is a very good option in that sense," said Leis.

However, SA Tartu 2024 cannot continue in its current form after 2025, as it was established primarily to host the European Capital of Culture.

"As a foundation, Tartu2024 has worked very well and brought together all the municipalities in South Estonia. So this definitely deserves to be continued," said Mayor of Tartu Urmas Klaas (Reform).

Sigrid Soomlais, deputy secretary general for regional development at the Estonian Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, said the current development plan appears to simply be a list of priorities without funding.

"In the future, things should definitely be different. In other words, the planned activities should have a financial backing. The money for the next period of European funding support could then, to a certain extent, go to those regions where development plans have been agreed," said Soonlais.

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