EU at Expo 2015 - JRC - European Commission

EU at Expo 2015 - JRC - European Commission

Expo Milano 2015 is a World or Universal exposition. World Expos take place every 5 years and have duration of 6 months. Participants include countries, international organizations, NGOs, corporations and other institutions such as the European Union. The size of the site is unlimited and participants build their own pavilions.

The first article of the International Convention Relating to International Exhibitions says that:

"An exhibition is a display which, whatever its title, has as its principal purpose the education of the public: it may exhibit the means at man’s disposal for meeting the needs of civilization, or demonstrate the progress achieved in one or more branches of human endeavour, or show prospects for the future."

World Expos are indeed referred to as Universal Expos also because, contrarily to the Expos prior to the 1939–40 New York World's Fair which aimed to display major technological novelties, each world Expo has from then on adopted a specific cultural theme that concerns the whole of humanity.(...)