a large international following outside of emigrant groups. These include: Alpine Wrestling in Switzerland. Bandy in Russia, Sweden, and Finland Basque Pelota in parts of Spain and France, and which has been brought to the Americas by emigrants. Bullfighting in Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France near the Spanish Border. Gaelic Football in Ireland, which influenced Australian rules football. Gaelic Handball (Ireland) which was taken to the United States in the form of American Handball. Hurling in Ireland. Korfbal in the Netherlands and Belgium. Pesäpallo (Boboll) in Finland Pétanque, Boules, Irish Road Bowling, Skittles, Bocce, and Bowls and others are variations of bowling games which are popular throughout Europe and have been spread around the world. Rounders from England now popular in northwest Europe from which Baseball derives. Shinty in Scotland, United Kingdom, which influenced ice hockey in Canada (see also Shinny). Trotting in southern Europe. Some sports competitions feature a European team gathering athletes from different European countries. These teams use the European flag as an emblem. The most famous of these competitions is the Ryder Cup in golf. Some sporting organizations hold European Championships like European Cricket Council, the European Games, the European Rugby Cup (Club/Regional competition), the European SC Championships, the FIRA - Association of European Rugby, the IIHF, the Mitropa Cup, the Rugby League European Federation - European Championship, the Sport in the European Union and the UEFA. European politics Overview See: History of Europe European Union See: Politics of the European Union Capital of Culture Each year since 1985 one or more cities across Europe are chosen as European Capital of Culture, an EU initiative. Here are the past and future capitals: 1985: Athens 1986: Florence 1987: Amsterdam 1988: Berlin 1989: Paris 1990: Glasgow 1991: Dublin 1992: Madrid 1993: Antwerp 1994: Lisbon 1995: Luxembourg 1996: Copenhagen 1997: Thessaloniki 1998: Stockholm 1999: Weimar 2000: Avignon, Bergen, Bologna, Brussels, Helsinki, Kraków, Prague, Reykjavík, Santiago de Compostela 2001: Rotterdam, Porto 2002: Bruges, Salamanca 2003: Graz 2004: Genoa, Lille 2005: Cork 2006: Patras 2007: Sibiu, Luxembourg, Greater Region 2008: Liverpool, Stavanger 2009: Vilnius, Linz 2010: Essen (representing the Ruhr), Istanbul, Pécs 2011: Turku, Tallinn 2012: Guimarães, Maribor 2013: Marseille, Košice 2014: Umeå, Riga 2015: Mons, Plzeň 2016: San Sebastián, Wrocław 2017: Aarhus, Paphos 2018: Valletta, Malta and Leeuwarden 2019: Plovdiv and Matera 2020: Galway and Rijeka Symbols See also Compendium of cultural policies and trends in Europe Cultural