Pre-selection in the Member States
Article 8
1. Each Member State concerned shall convene the panel for a pre-selection meeting with the candidate cities no later than five years before the year of the title. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, the Member States entitled to designate the cities to hold the title for the year 2020 may extend that deadline for a maximum of one year. 2. The panel, after assessing the applications in accordance with the criteria, shall agree on a shortlist of candidate cities and shall issue a pre-selection report on all the applications, providing, inter alia, recommendations to the short-listed candidate cities. 3. The panel shall submit the pre-selection report to the Member States concerned and to the Commission. 4. Each Member State concerned shall formally approve the shortlist based on the report of the panel.