Highlights of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008

An initiative of the European Union

European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2009 ISBN 978-92-79-12466-2 DOI 10.2766/34067

European Communities, 2009 Printed in Germany 

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Printed on white chlorine-free paper

Foreword by Commissioner Figel

The richness of cultures, traditions and beliefs that lie at the heart of the European project are a powerful source of inspiration and creativity. In our increasingly diverse societies, only genuine dialogue will ensure that we overcome the risk of divisions and move towards truly intercultural communities in Europe. The 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue highlighted the shared commitment of the EU institutions, Member States and civil society to fostering such communities. It is my honour to present this selection of projects and activities that have taken place throughout Europe during 2008 in the framework of the Year of Intercultural Dialogue. This selection represents only a fraction of the many hundreds of initiatives which took place in 2008, from festivals to art competitions, academic seminars to concerts, and conferences to sport events. The European Year successfully raised awareness of the benets of the cultural diversity which characterises Europe and generated reection and debate on themes including minorities and migration, the role of the media, education and science, as well as the contribution of dierent religions and beliefs to intercultural dialogue. The year was also an excellent opportunity to explore synergies between organisations working in many dierent elds: national ministries, art foundations, educational bodies, religious and faith communities, museums, cultural groups, schools, migrant organisations, youth and sport clubs all came together to contribute. More than 1,000 partners registered on the website of the Year and they helped ensure that intercultural dialogue was rmly placed in the spotlight. As for media coverage, I am pleased to announce that there were over 11,000 printed articles and more than 710,000 visits to the ocial web-page, amounting to more than 4.6 million page-views during the Year. Other European institutions such as the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions, as well as international organisations such as the Council of Europe also joined forces to raise awareness. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all our partners on European, national and local levels whose commitment contributed so much to the achievements of the Year. Beyond 2008, intercultural dialogue remains a priority for the European Commission. Together with committed partners in the Member States and in civil society we intend to build upon the positive momentum created by the Year. I am convinced that with more open hearts and minds we can pursue our shared vision of an intercultural Europe which values human dignity, civic participation and respect for diversity as a basis for strong and cohesive communities.

Jn Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth

Introduction
Introduction to the Year 3 Communicating the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue Policy Developments 6 9

EC Initiatives
Ambassadors of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue Media Launch and Opening Conference The Brussels Debates: Putting Communication First 12 15 16 Cultures on my Street Intercultural Photo Competition The European Festival of Intercultural Dialogue More Events in Brussels 20 22 26

Pan-European Initiatives
DIVERSIDAD iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD Alter Ego Cultures from around the Block Tatapume Meeting the Other 28 30 32 34 36 38 The StrangerFestival Arts Festivals as Players in an Intercultural Society Intercultural Cities 1001 Actions for Dialogue Other Civil Society Initiatives 40 42 44 46 49

National Initiatives
Policy Developments in Member States Communication: Best Practice Examples National Conferences during the European Year 2008 50 52 54 Learning from the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue Culture Comes Alive 56 58

Initiatives in other EU Institutions, Representations and Delegations

7 June 2008: Open Doors at the European Institutions 64 Committee of the Regions 65 European Economic and Social Committee 65 The European Parliament and the European Year 2008 The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in EC Delegations 66 68

Useful Weblinks

71

Commissioner Figel, campaign ambassadors and children at the press launch of the European Year 2008

Introduction to the Year

Europe is becoming more culturally diverse. The enlargement of the European Union, free movement of workers in the Single Market and globalisation have increased the multicultural character of many countries, adding to the number of languages, religions, ethnic and cultural backgrounds found on the continent. European societies are moving away from previous models of multiculturalism and assimilation, where dierent cultures tend to co-exist without interacting and where migrants are expected to adopt the majority culture. To make the most of the diversity which characterises Europe, communities need to make a strong commitment to intercultural dialogue. The concept of interculturalism embraces the idea of a fruitful exchange between dierent cultural groups that will enrich the whole society. As a result, intercultural dialogue has an increasingly important role to play in fostering European identity and citizenship.

Key Messages
Intercultural dialogue is a process through which all those living in the EU can improve their ability to deal with a more open, but also more complex, cultural environment. Dierent cultural identities and beliefs coexist in dierent Member States, as well as within each Member State. Intercultural dialogue is an opportunity to contribute to and benet from a diverse and dynamic society, not only in Europe but also in the world. Intercultural dialogue is a fundamental part of active European citizenship which is open to the world. It respects cultural diversity and is based on common values in the EU, as laid down in Article 6 of the EU Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Intercultural dialogue contributes to social cohesion and is a means to promote exibility and adaptation to the changes in human resources brought about by the success of the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs. Intercultural dialogue should be an important part of European policies towards neighbouring countries and external relations further aeld.

Why a European Year of Intercultural Dialogue?

The 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue was established by Decision N 1983/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (18 December 2006). The aim of the Year was to put across a clear message that Europes great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. The initiative encouraged all those living in Europe to explore the benets of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from dierent cultural traditions.

Introduction

The Year successfully raised awareness of the importance of intercultural dialogue which beyond 2008 remains a long-term priority for the European Commission. A range of EU policies and programmes work to support intercultural dialogue, in elds as diverse as lifelong learning, external relations, culture, research policy and regional and rural development.

Organisation of the Year

The campaign of the Year was built around several pillars: Information and promotion campaigns, particularly in cooperation with the media and civil society organisations at EU and national levels to disseminate the key messages of the Year and encourage recognition of best practices, especially among young people and children. A major tool of this communication campaign was the website www.dialogue2008.eu. The communication campaign is presented on pages 68. Well-known ambassadors were appointed to raise awareness of the importance and benets of intercultural dialogue by sharing their experiences and convictions. You can nd out more about them on pages 1214. Events and initiatives on a European scale initiated by the European Commissions Directorate General for Education and Culture. These events aimed at promoting intercultural dialogue, by involving

Dance can Express more than Words, ukasz Kwiatkowski, Poland Photo competition Cultures on my Street

directly or reaching as many people as possible and highlighting achievements and experiences on the theme of intercultural dialogue. These events are presented on pages 1527. Seven European-wide agship projects were co-nanced by the European Commission. More information on these agship projects and their achievements can be found on pages 2841. The active involvement of civil society was essential in highlighting good practices and identifying needs in intercultural dialogue as well as implementing the Year at grassroots level. Over 1,000 committed partners registered on the website for intercultural dialogue. Some major civil society initiatives are presented on pages 4249. Events and initiatives at national and regional levels organised by the National Coordinating Bodies (NCBs) for the Year. Usually these were government Ministries or cultural institutions with a role to play in intercultural dialogue; each developed a national strategy for the Year. These national initiatives had a strong European dimension aimed at promoting the objectives of the Year, with particular attention to actions on civic education. A selection of good practices from across Europe are presented on pages 5063. Other European institutions such as the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, and the Economic and Social Committee, as well as the European Commissions delegations all over the world were also actively involved in the Year. These events are presented on pages 6470.

Catherine Joyce, Philip Watt, John Mahoo, Donald Connell and a student from the Scoil Mhuire presenting a stamp for the European Year 2008, Dublin NCCRI

Introduction

Topics of the Year

Eight major topics were selected for a special focus during the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue: Culture and the Media Cultural expression is a key for mutual understanding and cultural cooperation can contribute to strengthening Europe-wide cohesion and identity. The media also play a major role in the development of European citizens vision of the world. The way dierent cultural backgrounds are depicted by the media greatly inuences individual representations, thus conrming or deconstructing stereotypes. Minorities Intercultural dialogue is a major tool to harness the talents and skills that people from minority communities bring to Europe and to provide opportunities to create deeper understanding and closer relationships with people belonging to such minorities. An important contribution to the Year was the rst European summit on Roma issues. Migration Intercultural dialogue between the host country society and dierent migrant communities from other Member States or outside the EU has a key role to play in strengthening citizenship values and participation for solidarity and cohesion in our societies. Dialogue with other cultures also contributes to a better understanding of our globalising world.

Children at the press launch of the European Year 2008

Religion In our increasingly multicultural societies the diversity of faiths, beliefs and convictions can lead to misconceptions and fears. Faceto-face dialogues based on respect can overcome these fears by fostering mutual knowledge and openness. In November, the European Commission organised a seminar on the opportunities and challenges which intercultural dialogue can represent for communities of religion and conviction. Education/Science In the education sector, intercultural dialogue aims to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills - so-called intercultural competences - to participate in increasingly diverse societies. Knowledge about other cultures and languages also contributes to mutual respect and understanding. The Workplace Increasingly European workplaces bring together people from dierent cultural backgrounds. This can present a challenge but also an opportunity; it is widely recognised that cultural diversity in companies can be a genuine asset for competitiveness in a globalised economy. Multilingualism Language skills are increasingly important in an enlarged European Union. They are also key enablers for intercultural dialogue. Learning a new language is an opportunity to better understand the corresponding culture and a fundamental step in opening minds to the richness of cultural diversity. In 2008 the Commission published a new Communication on Multilingualism. Youth It is especially important to encourage intercultural dialogue among young people whilst they are developing their own vision of the world and acquiring skills and competences for their future. Contact and interaction with cultures other than their own stimulates their curiosity and the desire to connect with their peers from around the world.

Intercultural Dialogue: A Challenge for Faiths and Convictions? Conference, Brussels

Introduction

Communicating the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 The Campaign

According to a Eurobarometer public opinion survey, published in November 2007, two thirds of Europeans interact with at least one person of a dierent religious, ethnic or national background every day. This shows that intercultural interaction is a common daily feature in the EU. Over 70 percent of respondents consider these relations to be positive and enriching. The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 and its key messages to the European public were built on these ndings. An extensive communication campaign with various highlights was organised to make sure that the messages of the Year were spread. Eurobarometer ash report No.217: Intercultural dialogue in Europe: Summary. Find the report at: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ash_arch_260_en.htm

Promotional material

The European Year 2008 gives us a valuable opportunity to explore ways to improve our intercultural dialogue and our intercultural relations. [] 50 years ago the idea of bringing our continents diverse populations together under one umbrella, the European Union, also seemed to be beyond reach. Now we can see the achievement of the European Union, and its remarkable success in uniting Europes countries. Therefore, we can and should face up to the challenges of our continents cultural and religious mix. That is why we have chosen the slogan Together in Diversity for the Year.

The Milestones of the Communication Campaign

Building on the overall structure of the campaign, which encompassed the Ambassadors of the Year, the Brussels Debates, the national projects and the seven European agship projects, a pan-European communication campaign was set up and executed throughout the Year. The following are a selection of milestones of this campaign.

Together in Diversity
Key messages of the communication campaign: Intercultural dialogue contributes to a mutual understanding and a better living together It is crucial to explore the benets of cultural diversity It is important to foster an active European citizenship and a sense of European belonging Wherever the campaign was present, the slogan resonated in dierent shades and forms.

Jn Figel on the eve of the campaign launch on 4 December 2007

Introduction

Online Communication
The website www.dialogue2008.eu was the main communication tool for implementing the strategy of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. This online presence was both a source of information about news, projects and events on intercultural dialogue and a platform for networking and sharing experiences. It oered a great variety of news, videos, picture galleries and resources, which were updated constantly with international and national content. The website was available in 23 languages. The English language version of the website was launched in Brussels as part of the media launch on 4 December 2007. All other 22 language versions were activated on 7 and 8 January 2008, on the occasion of the ocial European opening of the Year in Ljubljana, Slovenia. During the course of the Year 697,339 visits and 4,499,581 page views were registered for the campaign website. For the European Year 2008 a bi-monthly partner newsletter, as well as a monthly campaign newsletter and a newsletter for the National Coordinating Bodies were published. The European Year 2008 campaign newsletter was regularly sent to around 6,000 subscribers and the partner newsletter to about 450 contacts. The main website of the Year was supplemented by national websites set up by the National Coordinating Bodies to promote events in Member States.

Page visits to www.dialogue2008.eu

100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0

Page views on www.dialogue2008.eu

600,000 400,000 200,000 0 August 2007 November 2007 July 2007 April 2008 June 2008 August 2008 September 2007 November 2008 February 2008 March 2008 October 2007 May 2008 July 2008 September 2008 December 2007 January 2008 October 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009

Source: Media Consulta

Introduction

These partnerships were complemented by a variety of dierent media cooperations on a national level in Member States reaching broad audiences, as well as specialised target groups. Among many other partners were the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, Kiss FM radio station in the Greater London area, Slovak public radio Slovensk rozhlas, Irish national television RTE, a number of magazines from Finland, leading Swedish youth internet portal Lunarstorm, Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, and Deutsche Welle from Germany.

Facts & Figures

Dialogue Tour in all regional capitals, Austria

Information and Promotion Material

A wide selection of information and promotion material was produced and distributed over the course of the communication campaign: pens, shoulder bags, T-Shirts, press packs, yers in all the EUs ocial languages, and many other items. The most important design elements of the Year were made available for download on www.dialogue2008.eu in order to allow campaign partners in civil society and in Member States to use this material for branding and decoration purposes at their local events. This material included yer, poster and brochure templates, a photo backdrop, a logo, a letterhead template and other elements.

Over 11,500 press items reporting on the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 were generated from 1 December 2007 until 31 January 2009. More than 8,000 journalists from all over Europe were regularly updated on campaign issues 2,138 photographs were submitted to the photo competition Cultures on my Street More than 1,200 institutions and individuals registered on the campaign website as Partners of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Press items on the European Year 2008

1,600 1,400 1,200

Local Communication
One of the main characteristics of the European Year 2008 was its intention to go local. In order to achieve this, the communication material was adapted to the needs of campaign partners in all 27 Member States. Close cooperation with National Coordinating Bodies made it possible to highlight local issues when communicating with the media in Member States.

1,000 800 600 400 200 0

Media Cooperations
The establishment of media partnerships with pan-European media was another pillar of the communication strategy for the European Year 2008. For example, pan-European cooperations were established with EU Observer/Europocket, Al Jazeera Childrens Channel (JCC), Metro Newspaper (for the photo competition Cultures on my Street), European Voice and Eurosport and this helped to achieve diversity and more visibility for the issues of the Year.

April 2008

June 2008

August 2008

September 2008

November 2008

February 2008

March 2008

December 2007

January 2008

May 2008

July 2008

October 2008

Source: Media Consulta

Introduction

December 2008

January 2009

Press launch of the European Year 2008 at the Berlaymont, Brussels

Policy Developments
A Trans-sectoral Approach
One striking achievement of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue was to make clear the transversal and trans-sectoral character of intercultural dialogue. Beyond the eld of culture, intercultural dialogue also plays an important role in a wide range of policy elds. EU programmes and policies support intercultural dialogue in areas including education, youth, citizenship, research, employment and social aairs, integration of migrants, rural and regional development, and external relations. to intercultural competences are those relating to communication in foreign languages, social and civic competences, and cultural awareness and expression. This political document explicitly calls for a cross-sectoral approach to intercultural dialogue. The aim is to integrate and enhance existing initiatives and instruments and explore possible synergies. The Conclusions are a strong basis for future action in this area. Document available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/ LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:141:0014:0016:EN:PDF

Developing Intercultural Competences

The development of intercultural competences represents an important basis for intercultural dialogue. European Ministers underlined this fact by adopting Council Conclusions on Intercultural Competences under the Slovenian Presidency in the rst semester of 2008. They recognised that in order to face the challenges of the future, to become active citizens and to feel real ownership for the European project, European citizens need to be equipped with intercultural competences. The knowledge, skills and attitudes particularly relevant

External Dimension
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue has also given a new dynamism to the EUs external relations. Under the French Presidency of the EU, Ministers adopted Conclusions on the promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in the EUs external relations with third countries. The overarching objective is to strengthen the role of culture in policies and programmes within the framework of external relations and to promote cooperation. For the rst time, a

Introduction

strategic approach to including culture and intercultural dialogue in international cooperation has been proposed. Regional and countryspecic strategies adapted to the economic, social and cultural situations of the partners will be elaborated. One concrete area in which the Conclusions are being implemented concerns the development of the future Euro-Mediterranean Strategy for Culture, called for by Culture Ministers of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership meeting in June 2008 in Athens. Document available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/ LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:320:0010:0012:EN:PDF

Structured Dialogue between the European Commission and Civil Society

In order to promote a more structured and continuous dialogue with civil society, the Platform for Intercultural Europe was established, bringing together committed organisations from the culture sector and beyond. The Platform, formerly known as the Rainbow Platform, was initiated in 2006 by EFAH (European Forum for Arts and Heritage) and ECF (European Cultural Foundation), and now comprises over 300 civil society organisations and their individual members engaged in intercultural action throughout Europe and beyond - at local, national and international levels. In preparation of the European Year, the Platform conducted several consultations to explore how to support eorts to help Europes citizens cope with and benet from diversity. As a result, the Platform adopted the Rainbow Paper which sets out ve steps towards making interculturalism a new societal norm: educating, building capacity through organisations, monitoring for sustained policies, mobilising across boundaries, and resourcing of intercultural dialogue. The paper also includes practice-based recommendations addressed to civil society organisations and public authorities. The Platform will continue to work on raising awareness and on the promotion of its recommendations but also, closer to the ground, on the exchange of practices within the cultural sector and civil society as a whole.

Cooperation with Civil Society

One of the strengths of the Year was the commitment of civil society organisations. More than 1,000 organisations from all over Europe registered as Partners of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and organised events. By using the logo of the Year, they helped to raise its visibility. Civil society organisations also made a signicant contribution to policy debate, based on their own grassroots experience.

EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit, Vigy, France

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Introduction

Five Steps towards Interculturalism education building capacity through organisations monitoring for sustained policies mobilising across boundaries resourcing of Intercultural Dialogue

For more information on the Rainbow Paper and the Platform for Intercultural Europe visit http://intercultural-europe.org

A long-term Priority
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue has advanced the policy debate, contributed to the exchange of best-practice and raised awareness of the benets and challenges of living together in an intercultural society. From the outset, all stakeholders have stressed that intercultural dialogue needs to be a long-term priority of European, national and local policy-making. European institutions, Member States and civil society organisations have committed themselves to continue their common eorts to build upon the momentum created by the Year. One important working basis for this is the European Agenda for Culture, with intercultural dialogue representing the rst of its three main objectives. The Agenda is being implemented through the newly launched Open Method of Coordination, which brings together Member State experts to share and benchmark best practice and, when relevant, develop policy recommendations. One of the expert groups is dedicated to the synergies between culture and education (formal, non-formal and informal) a key for developing intercultural competencies. Both Ministries of Culture and Education participate in this group and will share and analyse their practices in this respect. The second pillar of implementation of the European Agenda for Culture is the structured dialogue with civil society, which in the eld of intercultural dialogue is assured by the Platform for an Intercultural Europe. Thirdly, the Agenda calls for a stronger focus on culture in other EU policies such as regional development, external policies, immigration and integration of migrants.

A wide range of programmes is already available to support projects that promote intercultural dialogue. All in all, funding is available through more than 20 initiatives, and support will continue to be available for a wide range of activities. For more information on funding for intercultural dialogue visit: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-programmes-and-actions/ doc493_en.htm and download the brochure Intercultural Dialogue support through EU programmes.

Intercultural Dialogue support through EU programmes

Intercultural Dialogue - support through EU programmes, brochure cover

Introduction

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Ambassadors of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Europe is a multilingual and multicultural continent. Many people consider this to be Europes greatest wealth - a wealth that needs to be preserved and promoted. This is one of the key messages of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. As intercultural ambassadors, the following personalities have invested their time and resources into representing the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, encouraging everyone living in Europe to embrace cultural diversity. The selected ambassadors are from a range of professions, including arts, literature, music and lmmaking, but they share common experiences or a background in intercultural exchange. In a variety of ways they all live the message they promote: to enjoy the benets of cultural diversity and use culture as a catalyst for creativity.

We must welcome the opportunity to learn about different cultures, and embrace the benfits of diversity to cultivate harmony between all people. Paulo Coelho

Abd Al Malik The son of Congolese immigrants, Rgis FayetteMikano aka Abd al Malik was born in 1975 in Paris, and was raised in the suburbs of Strasbourg. Milestones of his artistic career include a bestselling book about Islam in France (QuAllah bnisse la France, 2004) and three best-selling albums as a rapper, poetry slammer and founder of rap group New African Poets (N.A.P.).

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian novelist and lyricist. His book The Alchemist, is the best-selling Brazilian book of all time, it has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 56 languages. Before becoming an author, Coelho studied law and worked as a songwriter in Brazil. He currently lives in Brazil and France.

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour, born Shahnour Varenagh Aznavourian, is not only Frances most popular and enduring singer, but has also made a name for himself as a songwriter, actor and public activist. With a body of work encompassing over 60 films and about 1000 songs, he has become the epitome of the polylingual singing artist. Described by some as the entertainer of the century, Charles Aznavour has proven that cultural richness and diversity can indeed be a fountain of creativity.

Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne Belgian filmmakers and brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne write, produce and direct almost all of their films together. Since 1996 the two artists have created a body of work which places them at the forefront of contemporary Belgian cinema and amongst the worlds most critically acclaimed filmmakers. Young people, immigrants, the unemployed and the homeless are the primary subjects of their films. The Dardenne brothers have twice been awarded the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival.

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EC Initiatives

 Agnieszka Holland Agnieszka Holland is an award-winning Polish film and TV director and screenwriter who emigrated to France in 1981. Most recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish New Wave cinema, Holland ranks as one of Polands most prominent filmmakers. Holland received three Academy Award nominations: among them Best Foreign Language Film for Angry Harvest (1985) and Europa Europa (1991) which became one of the most successful German films ever released in the US.

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik, a renowned historian and cofounder of KOR (Committee for the Defence of Workers), is Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Polands biggest daily newspaper. Michnik is the author of a wide range of books and numerous articles published in internationally renowned newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel, Le Monde and the New York Review of Books. He has received many international and national awards for his work and for his political courage and engagement.

Jack Martin Hndler Bratislava-born Jack Martin Hndler is an internationally acclaimed violin soloist, music director and conductor. Mr. Hndler studied at the music conservatories in Bratislava and Moscow where he was a student of the legendary violinist David Ostrakh. He is the conductor of various musical formations in Sweden, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary.

Radu Mihileanu Radu Mihileanu is a Romanian-born French film director and screenwriter. He studied film and graduated from the Institute des Hautes tudes Cinmatographiques (IDHEC) in Paris. As a filmmaker, Mihileanu has been awarded numerous international prizes such as the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival and the Csar for Best Screenplay for works such as Train of Life/Train de Vie (1998), or Va, Vis et Deviens/Live and Become (2005). He is one of Europes most renowned contemporary directors.

Henning Mankell Best-selling Swedish crime writer, childrens author and playwright Henning Mankell is primarily known for his literary character Police Inspector Kurt Wallander. The internationally acclaimed author has a passion for Africa where he founded the Avenida Theater in Maputo, Mozambique in 1985. Mankell states that he finds inspiration for his work at his second home in Mozambique. He recently started his own publishing house Leopard Frlag in order to support young talent from Africa and Sweden.

Only when we understand that the self a balanced, joyous and peaceful self is nothing but the sum of our own identity and culture, nurtured by centuries of our nations history, and the identities and cultures of the others, likewise nurtured by centuries of their own history, will we perhaps see the light, the smile, the human being.
Radu Mihileanu

EC Initiatives

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 Marko Peljhan New media artist Marko Peljhan studied theatre and radio directing at the University of Ljubljana. In 1992 he founded the arts organisation Projekt Atol within the framework of which he works in the performance, visual arts and communications fields. His work has been presented at major international exhibitions and has been awarded the Medienkunst Prize at the ZKM in 2000 and the UNESCO Digital Media Art Award in 2004 among many other accolades. He is currently professor of interdisciplinary studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Jordi Savall One of the most multi-talented musicians of his generation, Jordi Savall is an exceptional figure in todays music world. The Spanish viola da gamba player, conductor, and composer has been one of the leading figures in the field of early music since the 1970s. He is credited with playing a major role in the revival of the viola da gamba as a stage instrument. Savall brings Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music to life with his three ensembles: Hesprion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, all of which were founded together with Montserrat Figueras.

Marjane Satrapi Artist, illustrator and author of childrens books, Marjane Satrapi grew up in Tehran during the 1970s and 1980s where she studied at the Lyce Franais. She then went to Vienna and later to Strasbourg, where she studied Decorative Arts. As a child, Satrapi lived through the Islamic Revolution in Iran, an experience she would later write about in her best-selling comic book Persepolis. It has since been translated into 25 languages. The animated film adaptation of Persepolis won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Fazil Say Fazil Say was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1970. As a student at the Ankara State Conservatory he studied piano and composition. In 1987, Say received a scholarship enabling him to study at the Robert Schumann Institute in Dsseldorf and he later moved to the Berlin Conservatory. Since the beginning of his career, he has played together with leading orchestras all over the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France.

Marija erifovi

As Europe becomes increasingly diverse, we need to focus on ways to unite people so that despite their differences, they can form a common identity. Marija erifovi

Serbian singer Marija erifovi grew up in a musical family and made her first public appearance at the age of 12. erifovi won the Budva Festival in 2004 and the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki.

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Introduction EC Initiatives

Media Launch and Opening Conference

Presenting the Year to the Media
For the ocial press launch of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue on 4 December, EU Commissioner Jn Figel was joined by seven campaign ambassadors to present the Years messages to the media. Representatives from organisations co-ordinating the Years agship projects also attended. More than 30 journalists from the international media were present and used the opportunity for interviews with Commissioner Figel and the special guests at a press conference at the Berlaymont building of the European Commission. During the press launch, a group of primary school pupils created colourful drawings around their perception of diversity and the concept of the other.

Jn Figel and Vasko Simoniti (Photograph: Robert Balen)

performances as well as short lms and modern dance. At the end of the opening event, hundreds of school children carrying pieces of luggage, as if on a journey, lled the stage accompanied by an 11-year-old violinist. According to Prime Minister Jana, the Year of Intercultural Dialogue oered Europe a twofold opportunity to strengthen its belief in itself, in its vital force and in the mission of European cultures, and to intensify dialogue with other cultures in order to overcome prejudice, achieve growth and mutual enrichment. Prior to the ocial opening, representatives of major European arts and cultural festivals signed a Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue in Ljubljana Castle with EU Commissioner Jn Figel. For more information, please refer to this brochures chapter on the European Festival Association (p42).

Primary school pupil at the Painting the Other workshop, Brussels

Slovenia welcomes the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008

On 8 January, the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 was ocially launched in Ljubljana, Slovenia, highlighting the start of the rst Slovenian EU Presidency. The festive evening was opened with speeches by Danilo Trk, President of the Republic of Slovenia, Jn Figel, EU Commissioner, Hans-Gert Pttering, President of the European Parliament, Edvard Kova, Professor of Ethics and Cultural Anthropology, and Janez Jana, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia. The event culminated in a colourful artistic programme featuring poetry reading and musical

The path of intercultural dialogue is the path of strengthening the most solid foundation for peace and prosperity on our planet. Janez Jana,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia

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Franco Frattini, Joris Rijbroek, Shada Islam, Bashy Quraishy, Cem zdemir Brussels Debate Integrating Conversations, 5 March 2008

The Brussels Debates: Putting Communication First

In order to encourage a productive exchange of views and to stimulate policy debates around the subject of intercultural dialogue, the European Commission, in cooperation with a range of partners, created the Brussels Debates as a platform for the discussion of dierent aspects of intercultural dialogue. The seven Brussels Debates held in the Rsidence Palace in Brussels brought together high-prole speakers who shared their expert views and personal experiences of intercultural dialogue in Europe with European journalists, policy makers, civil society stakeholders and a public audience from across Europe. The debates were chaired by Shada Islam, who is a Brussels based journalist specializing in EU foreign and development policies as well as immigration and anti-discrimination issues, a Senior Programme Executive at the European Policy Centre and regular contributor to the BBC, the Bulletin and E!Sharp magazine. All the debates were augmented by informal talks between the speakers and the audience during the subsequent networking receptions.

Integrating Conversations: The Impact of Migration on Intercultural Dialogue 5 March 2008

The topic of the rst Brussels Debate, Impact of Migration on Intercultural Dialogue, provoked a lively discussion with contributions by special guests Franco Frattini, then Vice-President of the

The focus should be on a local approach to intercultural dialogue. This is fundamental because we can talk about these issues in an abstract way, but in the end real dialogue is in the streets of every city in Europe. Joris Rijbroek

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The greater the diversity in society, the greater the range of cultural differences, the more difficult and the more acute are the responsibilities and accountability towards the inclusion and the rights of the other. Prerequisites for intercultural dialogue: Making room for or even celebrating differences and disagreement to become centres for dialogue, mediation and reconciliation.
Jette Sandahl

Bashy Quraishy from the European Network Against Racism

European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Cem zdemir, Member of the European Parliament, as well as by keynote speakers Bashy Quraishy, Chair of the Advisory Council of the European Network Against Racism and Joris Rijbroek, Strategic Advisor, Diversity and Integration Policy for the City of Amsterdam. In particular, the speakers of this debate called for active strategies for the integration of immigrants and cited intercultural dialogue as one of the main instruments for mutual knowledge sharing. Emphasis was given to active participation by host countries and immigrants alike, declaring integration as a two-way process that should involve all groups.

New Horizons: Active Citizenship to Bridge Inter-religious Divides 14 May 2008

The third session of the Brussels Debates dealt with the signicant issue of the possibilities and challenges of inter-religious dialogue in Europe. The guests welcomed by Shada Islam were EU Commissioner Jn Figel; Imam Dr. Abduljalil Sajid, Chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony UK; Nadine Iarchy, European Vicechair of the International Council of Jewish Women; and Mario Mauro, Vice-President of the European Parliament. All participants called for action and concrete engagement by the European Union, civil society, and the various religious groups in Europe. Specically, religious communities should cooperate to ght discrimination and engage in a dialogue based on open conversation and peaceful confrontation. In conclusion, Imam Sajid expressed the wish that every person in Europe regardless of their faith contribute to building a better and more intercultural society.

Negotiating Dierences: A Responsibility of Artists and Cultural Institutions 2 April 2008

Culture was praised for being an excellent vehicle for exchange and expression of identity during the second Brussels Debate. The debate consisted of contributions from experts as well as policy-makers in the eld including; Jn Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth; Dutch-Turkish photographer Ahmet Polat; Jette Sandahl, Director of the City Museum of Copenhagen, and French MEP and orchestra director Claire Gibault. The speakers stressed the overall importance of education as well as the responsibility of artists as bridge builders between dierent cultures. They asserted that exible perceptions of ones own identity are enormously important in todays ever-changing and complex multicultural environment.

Jn Figel, Imam Dr. Sajid, Shada Islam, Nadine Iarchy, Mario Mauro

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Multilingualism: A Bridge or a Barrier for Intercultural Dialogue? 10 September 2008

Promoting a multilingual Europe is key to maintaining the continents cultural diversity while at the same time giving citizens a sense of respect and common belonging in a condent EU, said British MEP Claude Moraes on 10 September, attempting to sum up the fth Brussels Debate. Alongside Moraes, the European Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban; Sandra Pralong, member of the Group of Intellectuals on Multilingualism; and Abram de Swaan, Emeritus Research Professor for Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, engaged in a lively discussion that revealed the highly personal nature of this topic. Commissioner Orban pointed out the two sides of the multilingual coin, namely that language-learning constitutes one of the most eective ways of facilitating intercultural dialogue on the one hand, while on the other linguistic diversity constitutes a barrier to communication and can lead to misunderstandings between cultures. Abram de Swaan expressed a controversial viewpoint: he argued that English would inevitably prevail unless the EU limited the number of ocial languages to the few most widely-spoken. Nevertheless, all politicians should have the right to speak their own language and all the EUs tongues should be spoken publicly by top EU ocials to raise awareness of Europes linguistic diversity. After an animated debate, Claude Moraes concluded that language would always remain an emotional issue, impossible to disentangle from history and culture.

Visitors at the Brussels Debate, Couscous Culture

Couscous Culture: Is that what Intercultural Dialogue in the Workplace is all about? 4 June 2008
Globalisation has brought its share of added diversity and challenges to the workforce of all EU countries: internal migration is the result of workers - and not only highly skilled workers - moving within the EU. These workers are joined by migrants coming from countries outside the Union. At the fourth Brussels Debate, which focused on intercultural dialogue at work, speakers Vladimir pidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Aairs and Equal Opportunities; Benot van Grieken, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of Randstad Belgium; Chibo Onyeji, Vice-President of the European Network Against Racism; and Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, MEP for Cyprus, were asked to explore the issue of whether diversity is just about couscous at company lunches or rather about creating culturally diverse workplaces built on respect and free expression of ones identity. All participants agreed that intercultural dialogue is a useful tool for respecting and promoting diversity in the workplace, but that a lot more has to be done to achieve an environment free of all forms of discrimination. Specically, this means that strict laws should be put into place along with eective enforcement mechanisms and dissuasive sanctions accompanied by positive action measures.

He who knows nothing about other cultures knows nothing about his own.
Goethe, cited by Kyriacos Triantaphyllides at the Brussels Debate, Couscous Culture
Sandra Pralong

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Education: Ready for the Intercultural Challenge? 1 October 2008

At the sixth Brussels Debate, Commissioner Jn Figel; Jagdish Singh Gundara, UNESCO Chair for Intercultural Studies; Marianne Poncelet, Secretary General of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation; and Fred van Leeuwen, Secretary General of Education International, tackled the issue of how and to what extent education plays a role within intercultural dialogue. Prof. Gundara argued that in todays Europe, developing teachers intercultural competence and abilities to transfer European values is of central importance for building a cosmopolitan citizenship. He also discussed the importance of educating the youth to cope with the increasingly complex world of the media. In general, the outcome of the discussion between the speakers and the audience revealed the importance of a non-formal component in education that raises the awareness of values which could promote social change and justice in a globalized world. All participants agreed that education helps develop competences that individuals can make use of when they nd themselves in unfamiliar situations. Promoting diversity at school was also mentioned as a key step to achieving eective intercultural dialogue.

Talking Our Way out of Trouble: How Media Debate Can Combat Intolerance 5 November 2008
Across the globe certain actors in the media tend to provide a simplistic, one-sided view of the other. At times when racism and intolerance are a common feature of public debates in many countries be it within the host society or in a minority group - the media often stokes the res of intolerance and racism instead of raising awareness and challenging ignorance.

The challenge for the public is to understand what quality is, in particular in a period when nationalistic and racist ideas are spreading.
Christa Prets

At the seventh Brussels Debate on media and intercultural dialogue, the participants agreed that responsibility for the role of media was shared between media professionals, policy-makers and the general public. It was concluded that initiatives to take action against discrimination and racism in the media needed to be supported, and that media literacy among the European public needs to be encouraged by national governments and European Union institutions. Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, herself a former journalist in Luxemburg, insisted that media has been an intercultural dialogue tool from the very beginning, even before the internet era. Forward Maisokwadzo, Coordinator of the Exiled Journalists Network, argued that only an ethnically diverse newsroom sta could fully grasp the complex reality of Europes society. Referring to the role of the general public, Christa Prets, MEP, mentioned that media literacy and the ability to assess the quality of media reports helped preserve todays existing diversity without allowing low-quality media to dominate public opinion. Bettina Peters, Director of the Global Forum for Media Development, reported on the importance of the media in portraying diversity issues. Examples of reporting in the UK, Italy or Germany showed how certain media assume anti-immigration viewpoints, develop relationships with racist political parties or fail to report fairly on established minorities.

A question from the audience

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Photo competition Cultures on my Street: The award

Cultures on my Street Intercultural Photo Competition

In December 2007 the European Commission announced the photo competition Cultures on my Street and presented the jury and the entry regulations. The competition was designed to challenge the creativity of European citizens, who were called upon to capture unique moments relating to European cultural diversity and to illustrate the theme of intercultural dialogue. Participants were asked to consider the topics of the Year in their photographs: education, religion, migration, science, culture, minority groups, and youth. A special website dedicated to the competition was launched at www.streetcultures.eu in all the EUs ocial languages on 3 March 2008. More than 2,000 European amateur and professional photographers submitted their contributions. The professional jury made up of high-prole photographers and visual artists was asked to select three winners. The jury featured European Ambassador of the Year, Franco-Romanian lm director and screenwriter Radu Mihileanu; Indian-born photo-journalist for Stern magazine Jay Ullal of Germany; French photographer Charles Frger; Hungarian-born writer and photographer Zsuzsanna Ard of England; Dutch-Turkish photographer Ahmet Polat and the Finnish freelance photographer Arja Hyytiinen. Professor Chris Wainwright, professional photographer and President of the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), chaired the jury. The entries were in part

1st prize: Village Cobbler, Joseph Smith, Malta Photo competition Cultures on my Street

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judged by their creativity and originality of expression and whether they succeeded in visualizing the topic of intercultural dialogue. In addition to the jurys verdict, European citizens had the opportunity to choose their favourite picture by casting an online vote on the competitions website.

And the Winners are

The award ceremony for the Cultures on my Street Competition took place on 25 September in Brussels, with Commissioner Figel in attendance. The rst prize went to Joseph Smith from Malta for his image entitled Village Cobbler: a jumble of shoes, tools, religious ornaments and Elvis posters provide the crowded setting for a tradesman and the locals who often meet in his workshop. Smith pictured Freddys shop, a meeting place for friends, locals and even the occasional tourist in the village of Dingli, Malta. The jury awarded the second prize to Nikolaj Lund from Denmark, for his photo Open Minds. The picture records a warm embrace between three girls at Lille Torv in rhus, Denmark, at the end of a conversation. This is, according to the photographer, intercultural dialogue in action. The photo was taken on the occasion of the project Borrow a Person: Grow Wiser. The third prize went to Jrme Clair from France for his image Isolated from the game. The Publics Favourite Award, determined through the online vote, went to Fairy Tales 1 by Simon Vansteenwinckel from Belgium. He described his inspiration for the picture with the following words: I found four young girls playing in the street. Anna,

Village Cobbler is a very intimate picture showing a very small space. Somebody is practising a traditional trade that is now vanishing from our lives. Yet he manages to bring into this tiny intimate space the outside world of today. The shop is a tapestry of the iconography of modern life. This very striking image manages to bring together private and the public space in a dynamic fashion.
Winning verdict of the jury

Clara, Fatou and Marie are mtis (with parents from dierent ethnic backgrounds). But, above all, they are fairies. The jury also supported the Publics Favourite picture: it was considered to be a dynamic image, well observed and it added a sense of action, engagement and optimism to the subject. The prizes for the winners included digital cameras and trips to European capitals worth a total of 15,000 Euros. The four winning and 21 additional short-listed photographs chosen by the jury were also on display at the esplanade of the Berlaymont building of the European Commission from 25 September to 31 October and were then sent to tour around Europe. Taken together, these photographs show a panorama of intercultural encounters across the EU in education and religion, sport and entertainment, shopping and socialising, and in everyday exchanges between young and old, neighbours, friends and strangers.

2nd prize: Open Minds, Nikolaj Lund, Denmark Photo competition Cultures on my Street

3rd prize: Isolated from the Game, Jrme Clair, France Photo competition Cultures on my Street

Publics favourite award: Fairy Tales 1, Simon Vansteenwinckel, Belgium Photo competition Cultures on my Street

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Jack Martin Hndler conducting the Bruno Walter Symphony Orchestra

The European Festival of Intercultural Dialogue

On 12 and 13 September 2008, the European Commission collaborated with the Flagey Arts Centre in Brussels to celebrate the European Festival of Intercultural Dialogue. Jn Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth, invited Ambassadors of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue to celebrate cultural diversity with a packed two-day programme of concerts, workshops, lm screenings and debates. More than 2,000 visitors enjoyed the programme which brought together seven of the European Ambassadors for Intercultural Dialogue in joint creative events: lm and TV director Agnieszka Holland; conductor Jack Martin Hndler; lm director Radu Mihileanu; journalist, author, historian and political activist Adam Michnik; viola da gamba player and conductor Jordi Savall; pianist Fazil Say and pop singer Marija erifovi. The festivities began on Friday 12 September with Jack Martin Hndlers moving tribute to the conductor Bruno Walter, during a concert by the Bruno Walter Symphony Orchestra featuring Turkish piano virtuoso Fazil Say. The concert covered a vast repertoire, from Mozart to Berger and Fazil Say after brilliantly interpreting Mozarts Concerto n12, played his own composition Black Earth. Film screenings and discussions with the public took place in parallel: Copying Beethoven with Diane Krueger and Ed Harris introduced by the director Agnieszka Holland and Tous les matins du monde by Alain Corneau introduced by Jordi Savall, composer and interpreter of the music for the lm. On Saturday 13 September, a round table discussion led by Michal Zeeman was held with Ambassadors of the Year among them Adam Michnik and Marija erifovi. The rare opportunity of having all these

The main achievements of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue are a raised awareness of the importance of intercultural dialogue, a stronger commitment of different communities whether religious or ethnic or any other. In real terms its about a culture of dialogue in our daily lives.
EU Commissioner Jn Figel

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high-prole Ambassadors together at the same time, as well as the diversity of their backgrounds and experiences, created the perfect atmosphere for reecting about the Other, seen through the lens of music, cinema or politics. In the evening of the same day, director Radu Mihileanu introduced the lm Va, vis et deviens (Live and Become) and discussed it with the audience following the screening. At the same time, Jordi Savall together with three other musicians, members of the group Hesprion XXI, enchanted a full concert hall with an original and vibrant performance of eastern and western music entitled Orient Occident. A dialogue of the souls. The Orient Occident project was a stimulating dialogue between eastern and western musicians, achieved by working with instruments and music from ancient Christian, Jewish and Muslim Spain, on the estampies of medieval Italy as well as on the improvisations and dances from Morocco, Israel, Persia, Afghanistan and the Ottoman Empire. The audience had the opportunity to witness the contrasts between Oriental and Occidental music, and their written or oral traditions. Jordi Savall, Pedro Estevan, Dimitri Psonis and Driss El Maloumi reminded the audience that the music of the east and west has been engaged in constant dialogue and that our common heritage has

Young participants at the music workshop

been enriched by this encounter of cultures. The late-night concert by Hungarian Roma band Parno Graszt closed the festival in an explosive spirit of gypsy folklore music that broke down the boundaries between musicians and the public in the Belga Caf.

Discovering New Talents

The workshop series included musical workshops for children with Jordi Savall and Marija erifovi, a cinema workshop for 12 to 14 year olds with Agnieszka Holland and Radu Mihileanu, and a musical workshop on the concertos of Joseph Haydn given by Jack Martin Hndler in collaboration with the musicians of the Bruno Walter Symphony Orchestra and Harriett Langley, a soloist from the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. During the cinema workshop on Saturday 13 September, young talents were invited to make a short lm with the Franco-Romanian director Radu Mihileanu and Polish director Agnieszka Holland. The workshop participants provided ideas for narratives and stories about where they lived. They translated these ideas to lm by working as a team of actors. The cinematic workshops with renowned directors were a once in a lifetime opportunity for the youngsters.

Auditorium at the Flagey Arts Centre

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A Festival for the Year

Jordi Savall, Driss El Maloumi, Pedro Estevan, Dimitri Psonis

Marija erifovi

Fazil Say, Jack Martin Hndler and musicians of the Bruno Walter Symphony Orchestra

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Adam Michnik

Agnieszka Holland

Hungarian Romanian Band Parno Graszt

Odile Quintin, Director General for Education, Training, Culture and Youth

Radu Mihileanu

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More Events in Brussels

Couleur Caf 27 June 2008
The Couleur Caf Festival heralded the start of the festival season in Brussels. The European Commission was present with an information stand to promote the activities organised to enhance intercultural dialogue. Crowd pullers such as the game Name that tune in 23 languages or a magnetic map of Europe on which visitors were asked to pin words according to their origin, made the stand a great success. Couleur Caf is a music festival in the heart of Brussels which is dedicated to currents of urban music from across the world.

Football for Diversity 17 September 2008

Special Olympics Football in the Park, Brussels

Concert Together in Diversity 13 June 2008

Six months after the ocial launch of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Slovenia, the European Commission, Slovenia and the City of Brussels hosted a concert at the Grand Place in Brussels. The concert entitled Together in Diversity, united a combination of rhythms and dierent nationalities embodied by three bands: Strojmachine (Slovenia), Karim Baggili Quintet (Belgium) and Gipsy.Cz (Czech Republic). The keynote speakers at the ocial reception held prior to the concert were Mayor of Brussels Freddy Thielemans, EU Commissioner Jn Figel, and Borut Trekman, the Republic of Slovenias Ambassador in Brussels.

Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia, supported by the European Football Federation, UEFA, organised mini football games under the title Football in the Park Football for Diversity. The short matches took place at the Parc Lopold in Brussels. In 2008 the European Commission was the ocial event partner as part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Guest of honour, EU Commissioner Jn Figel, kicked o this special tournament which featured Members of the European Parliament and sta from various European institutions, along with a team of Special Olympics athletes and young talents of RSC Anderlecht. Special Olympics is active on a global scale and supports young athletes with learning diculties to participate in the sport of their choice, thereby contributing to their social inclusion.

Online Debate on Spring Day 2008 16 June 2008

EU Commissioner Jn Figel hosted an online debate on the Spring Day website. The debate covered a large range of subjects, from European educational programmes and their goal of raising awareness about European cultural diversity and increasing intercultural dialogue and understanding, to theoretical and practical aspects of interculturality and its perception in schools. Students and teachers from 14 schools representing 12 countries came online to interact with Commissioner Figel and his team of experts. Spring Day for Europe is an annual campaign by the European Commission that is open to all schools in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Teachers are encouraged to book one or more days in their calendars to involve their students in activities that focus on debate, interaction and reection on current European themes.

Couleur Caf Festival, Brussels

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Dialogue Between Religions and Convictions 11 November 2008

Around 100 participants attended the conference Intercultural Dialogue: A Challenge for Faiths and Convictions? held by the European Commission in the framework of the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and as a follow-up to the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. The seminar brought together project coordinators, policy makers, experts in the elds of education and media, as well as representatives of religious and secular groups active in the eld of intercultural dialogue. The aim was to learn from their practical experiences and good practices and to identify ways to improve inter-religious relations, when and where required. Participants were invited to discuss important questions such as whether European education systems are equipped to teach ethnically diverse populations or how the media can create or overcome stereotypes of dierent religious groups.

From Intercultural Dialogue to Creativity and Innovation 5 December 2008

The handover ceremony from the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 to its successor, the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009, was marked by the ocial press launch of the 2009 Year followed by a concert featuring the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra in Brussels. With EU Commissioner Jn Figel in attendance, the orchestra played on instruments made solely of vegetables. Using carrot utes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, marrow vibrators, cucumberphones and celery bongos, the orchestra creates its own extraordinary vegetable sound universe.

The end of this Years campaign is by no means the end of our commitment to intercultural dialogue. Jn Figel

Closing the Year but not Ending Intercultural Dialogue 1719 November 2008
The conference in Paris, hosted by the French Presidency of the European Union and the European Commission, welcomed more than 600 participants from across Europe and beyond. Under the title New Perspectives for Intercultural Dialogue in Europe, top-level speakers, including Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French Secretary of State for European Aairs, Christine Albanel, French Minister of Culture and Communication, and Odile Quintin, Director General of DG Education and Culture of the European Commission, reected on the projects undertaken during the Year, and on the lessons for stimulating intercultural dialogue in the long term. Abd Al Malik, Ambassador for the European Year, stressed the importance of artists in promoting intercultural dialogue in the world. The conference featured a wide range of visual and artistic expression, as well as round-table discussions examining the role of the media, the potential for public action, teaching methods in education for intercultural dialogue, and intercultural dialogue between Europe and non-EU countries.

Palestinian/Israeli choir at the seminar Intercultural Dialogue a Challenge for Faiths and Convictions?

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DIVERSIDAD Festival of Urban Cultures at the WUK Vienna, European Music O ce

The Flagship Projects

Following an open call for proposals, the European Commission received almost 300 project suggestions for pan-European awarenessraising projects, seven of which were selected to be co-funded with 2.4 million from the European Years budget of 10 million. The seven agship projects covered these areas: urban culture, popular arts, participation of young people, migration, media, exchange of local initiatives, audio-visual media, or activities of immigrant communities. All entries included participants from several Member States. The results of the selected projects were presented at the end of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and turned out to be an important contribution to the campaigns visibility.

DIVERSIDAD
Building the Bridge Between European Urban Cultures
Urban cultures draw young people together. They are the reection of respect and solidarity through common values and the diversity of languages, cultures and origins that make up the Europe of today. Hip-hop as a central element of urban cultures has, among other music forms and youth cultures, developed into a vector of intercultural dialogue connecting young people, communities and social networks of all backgrounds. The agship project DIVERSIDAD offered a platform for European artists from dierent urban cultures to meet, share their ideas, and to create a lasting bridge of exchange. The European Music Oce (EMO) and the association Diversits were responsible for this unique project, which sought to demonstrate the scope and richness of urban cultures in Europe and to banish the clichs with which they are too often associated. DIVERSIDAD surpassed all expectations by organising concerts, exhibitions, documentaries, conferences and the development of a digital exchange platform.

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Apart from the language, the countries and cultures of origin, everybody had a common bond that of their 2nd culture of origin, hip-hop. That made all the difference and enabled a real cohesion for the recording. It was a great experience on a personal level and artistically. Laurence Touitou,
artistic director DIVERSIDAD project

of the best hip-hop artists in Europe (rappers, grati artists, DJs etc.) got together for the rst time for three days of festivities, exchanges and creation. The audience at the festival was invited to attend daily conferences in which the artists themselves, sports personalities, sociologists, journalists and music professionals exchanged views on topics such as Intercultural Dialogue and Urban Cultures, Sport, Urban Cultures and Citizenship and The Circulation of Artists in Europe, in order to consider the future and the dierent ways to support those forms of artistic expression that still tend to be marginalized by the mainstream culture. In the unique location of the WUK, European artists such as Abd al Malik, IAM, La Caution (France), Baloji (Belgium), Curse (Germany), Sam the Kid (Portugal), Noora Noor (Norway), Texta, DJs Waxolutionists and Cut Ex (Austria), Colle der Fomento (Italy), Looptroop Rockers (Sweden), 7notas7colores and Porta (Spain) performed and invited each other to the stage during their respective sets. Grati art also played an important role in the DIVERSIDAD festival at the WUK gallery, where the exhibition From grati to graphics, from spray to mouse, from the wall to monitor united ve of the most inuential grati artists in Europe. During the three days of the festival, these very modern artists created a common canvas as an illustration of intercultural dialogue.

The Single
From 30-31 March 2008 an impressive line-up of European hip-hop artists joined (artistic) forces in Paris and recorded a single that turned out to be a huge success among fans of the music style and beyond an anthem for the DIVERSIDAD project. Well known musicians such as Abd al Malik, Akhenaton, Ahmed and ShurikN from France, Baloji from Belgium, Noora Noor from Norway, Curse from Germany, 7notas7colores from Spain, Sam the Kid from Portugal and the Looptroop Rockers from Sweden got together and recorded the single DIVERSIDAD. The instrumental and a cappella versions of the single were subsequently made available for free download in cooperation with the online community provider MySpace to enable other interested artists and groups to adapt it and circulate their own version of the single. Artists from all countries were able to send in their version of the DIVERSIDAD single, their remix, as well as their own productions, videos or concert dates. A dynamic news section, accessible on www. myspace.com/diversidadexperience followed the making of the single and gave information on upcoming festivals, conferences and other events. The aim was to encourage European artists to look across the borders, get to know one another and exchange experiences by working on a common song.

The Festival: Encounters, Exhibition and Entertainment

The DIVERSIDAD Festival of Urban Cultures from 23-25 June 2008 at the WUK in Vienna brought together some of Europes leading and emerging hip-hop and urban culture artists. It was the rst European event of this kind, presenting a wide variety of urban culture encounters on the theme of intercultural dialogue with a concert, seminars, forums, workshops, exhibitions and DJ contests. While the 2008 European Football Championship was in full swing in Austria, some

Title: DIVERSIDAD Theme: Intercultural dialogue, Urban culture Lead Organiser: European Music Oce Co-organisations involved: Diversits (FR), MICA Music Austria Countries: France, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Germany Target group: Youth, artists, culture professionals Final Products: DVDs, CDs Website: www.myspace.com/diversidadexperience

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iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD

Tell me a story, or how was the world born?
The informal educational aspects of travelling and rst-hand experience are invaluable in intercultural education. But what about European citizens who are too young for this kind of experience, for example pupils in primary schools at the beginning of their (intercultural) education? In this case, imagination, artistic expression and help from professionals can lead to intercultural journeys. The International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (IYMF) has been using storytelling for many years to promote cultural diversity. The foundation developed a concept for children from primary schools in Europe and beyond to discover the archetypes common to all cultures through artistic approaches encompassing words, music, play, images, writing, lm or a combination of these forms of expression: in short, the art of storytelling.
Artistic preparation in schools IYMF 2008 (Photograph: Patries Wichers)

To mark the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation developed iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD which was chosen to become one of the Years seven agship projects.

Children as Storytellers
During the rst stage, from January to June 2008, the artistic work took place, involving approximately 350 children from 14 schools, and 14 artists from various disciplines, including seven storytellers. Each class, led by a storyteller from another country or culture, created a story and passed it on to a dierent class in another country, employing a specic medium (lm, sound, theatre and dance) to tell the given story. During the second stage, which took place in Bk, Hungary, in July 2008, Hamadi, the artistic director of the Maison du Conte in Brussels, himself an artist-storyteller and trainer, led an artistic seminar for all the professional storytellers involved in the project. The goal was to assess the activities of the preceding months involving the children and the exchange of good artistic practices. In the following stage, from June to October 2008, all the experiences and results from the childrens workshops and the artistic seminar were incorporated into teaching and dissemination tools, including a DVD, a website, the launch of a project intranet and the publication of the stories created by the children and artists.

I wonder if anyone lives there. Heather said. Lets go and find out, they all agreed.
The cosmogony according to the pupils of Carlibar Primary School - Barrhead, Scotland, 2008 A work guided and directed by storyteller Gerry Durkin

About the Project

The objective of the project was to increase primary school childrens awareness of intercultural dialogue by encouraging exchanges between artists from a range of cultures, thus creating a chain of diversity and developing a network of experiences. Developed in the seven participating countries Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Scotland, France, Germany and Belgium the project iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD is structured around several work stages.

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SHARE THE WORLD The Closing Concert

On 3 December 2008 all participants, the professional storytellers, the children, and the other professionals involved gathered for a closing concert at the Cirque Royal in Brussels. This was the highpoint of the agship project and it received extensive European press coverage. Under the slogan Share the World, the event brought together world famous musicians such as Natacha Atlas & The Mazeeka Ensemble, Trio Loyko and Iva Bittova. The musicians were introduced by the storytellers of each project, and they proceeded to create an intercultural dialogue in song and music, giving the project a worthy nale and presenting its outcome. The evening was hosted by Vaya Con Dios star Dani Klein, Belgian artist-storyteller Hamadi and independent storyteller and actor Tom Vout.

Reaching the Public

There was a strong emphasis on the educational dimension of this project - primary schools in the dierent countries have been involved directly. The most important aspect of this project was its European dimension: practice and networks in the eld of art education in European schools, the multicultural experiences of artists from dierent elds and a focus on cultural diversity. All the planned activities have gained signicant publicity and high visibility and have succeeded in reaching large audiences.

Title: iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD Themes: Intercultural Dialogue, Culture, Education, Arts, Tales and stories, Cosmogony of the world Lead organiser: International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Co-organisations involved: Associaao Menuhin (Portugal); MUS-E Italia (Italy); MUS-E Magyarorszg Kzhaszn Egyeslet (Hungary); MUS-E Belgium; East Renfrewshire Council Education Department (United Kingdom); Association Courant dArt (France); Yehudi Menuhin Stiftung (Germany); La Maison du Conte de Bruxelles; Institut de Recherche, Formation et Action sur les Migrations (Belgium); Roma Education Fund (Hungary) Countries: Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Scotland Target Group: pupils, school management and teachers, artists, general public Final products: 7 short lms; DVD showing the testimonies of the storytellers; presentations of good practices; website; book with tales created by children and artists; playing cards to encourage intercultural dialogue Website: www.iyouwesharetheworld.eu

Dani Klein and Jn Figel at the Concert SHARE THE WORLD Cirque Royal, Brussels

The project is not entirely concluded and the nal stage comprises an ongoing evaluation. The Belgian storyteller Hamadi, along with other experts and artists, all possessing signicant practical experience in their eld of activity, will evaluate various aspects and stages of the project; these experts inculde visual artist Patries Wichers, audiovisual expert Andor Timar, and Julie Godfroid, expert in intercultural dialogue at the Institute for Research, Training and Action on Migration (IRFAM).

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Alter Ego
Who do you Want to be Somewhere Else?
EU-countries to take part in an exciting pan-European competition: to create a double portrait of themselves and their imagined alter ego from a dierent cultural background using lm, photography, painting, music or mixed-media. Alter Ego aimed to promote intercultural dialogue, cross-cultural understanding and the active European citizenship of young people through collaborative art projects that would encourage them to reach beyond their normal social circles. The project provided the young contributors with an opportunity to reect on intercultural dialogue and their role in it during a particularly formative phase of their lives.

We know that Europe is a difficult project, it is a long-term project. There are so many experts and there is so much cynicism from adults, that we really believe we need the energy, creativity and imagination of young people.
Dorian Van der Brempt, Director Vlaams-Nederlands Huis deBuren

Imagine you were born in another European country. Who would you be? Where would you go? How would you behave? What would interest you? What would you look like? What languages would you speak? The Alter Ego project, submitted by the European Union National Institutes for Culture, Brussels (EUNIC) and chosen as one of the seven agship projects for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, invited European citizens aged between 14 and 18 from 22

Alter Ego and the Media

The press launch of Alter Ego, on 16 April at the BELvue Art Museum in Brussels, marked the beginning of the pan-European EUNIC youth project. Each component of the project was introduced by the project team and its ambassadors, the promotion clip was premiered, and the website, the centrepiece of the project, was revealed.

Artworks workshop week StampMedia (Photograph: Artur Eranosian)

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Launch Alter Ego in Italy Alter Ego/EUNIC

Present at the launch were the Belgian Community Ministers of Youth, Bert Anciaux, Marc Tarabella and Isabelle Weykmans, the ambassadors of the project, Ronny Mosuse, Hadise and the band Joshua, and speakers from dierent elds, among them Dorian Van der Brempt.

Title: AlterEgo Theme: Intercultural Dialogue, Young People, Arts Lead organiser: European Union National Institutes for Culture Brussels - EUNIC Co-organisations involved: 29 partners in 22 countries Countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK Target group: 14 to 18 year-old students Final product: lightweight exhibition, pedagogical web-blog, documentary of the workshop week in Denmark, video clips and photographs Website: www.alterego-europe.eu

Going Online
From 16 April to 5 September 2008 participants were able to upload their work onto the interactive website for the Alter Ego project. Over 750 works were uploaded on www.alterego-europe.eu. All website visitors were able to see the uploads and to comment on the works.

A Workshop for the Winners

A jury of artists and media professionals selected two winners per country. The 44 winners met up in Denmark for an intercultural art workshop and were able to work with 14 European artists, among them actors Olivier Cherki and Elena Crisanti. The intercultural workshop for the 44 winners focused on the European dimension of cultural diversity. The participants worked together in international teams guided by professional trainers, and created joint projects on the topic of cultural diversity and dialogue. Whilst the ocial press launch of the 2008 agship project Alter Ego was held in traditional style, press coverage and publicity for the winners workshop was undertaken by a media agency focusing on youth communication: pictures of the workshop were shared on Flickr, a blog commenting on interesting situations from the workshop and video lms were uploaded to YouTube on a regular basis allowing the audience to experience the atmosphere. The resulting work from the winners workshop will be selected to travel through Europe as part of a major touring exhibition (virtual and physical) encompassing DVD presentations, workshops and talks led by the winners to disseminate the ideas they developed and lessons they learnt.

Participants workshop week StampMedia (Photograph: Artur Eranosian)

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Cultures from around the Block

Do we really know the world in which we live? How easy is it to avoid looking closely when we are accustomed to our own surroundings? How easy is it to overlook important fragments that complete the whole picture - the whole picture of intercultural dialogue on our doorsteps and in our local community? The agship project Cultures from around the Block was organised by the Multicultural Center Prague as a part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. It aimed to rediscover and better understand the character of todays local communities, present within large European cities. How much intercultural dialogue is taking place in these communities without being noticed? To nd out, the Multicultural Centre Prague established a network of partner organisations from dierent parts of Europe. These partners created media projects with the participation of students from two local high schools. The students goal was to examine and capture impressions of their surroundings using dierent media, such as photography, sound, written word or lm. In this way the students were expected to become more familiar with both the place in which they live in and the world around them. The aim of the project was to bring together young people from different ethnic groups living in the same city and, through workshops in which they documented their surroundings with various media, facilitate intercultural dialogue while building long-lasting ties between people living in dierent communities. Cultures from around the Block oered the participants a wide spectrum of creative activities, such as shooting a documentary lm, creating a website informing people about the process of local integration, and nally presenting the results arising from the local projects. The project was supported by non-prot organisations from Prague, Oenbach, Bucharest, Bratislava, Warsaw, Brussels and Vienna. The project results from participating organisations mirror and display images and information about diverse ethnic groups in Europe from a grassroots perspective. Cultures from around the Block focused on local neighbourhoods across Europe and has given a clear view about how multicultural structures work today in Europe. The dierent groups responsible for the projects have in turn added their own perspectives to the portraits.

Locals Open Their Eyes

The project activities as part of Cultures from around the Block included local media projects in Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Coventry, Prague, Warsaw and Vienna. In the Czech Republic, the Multicultural Center Prague organised a local media project entitled Together About Ourselves. The main medium employed in the project was classic black and white photography. Two groups participated in the project, which lasted from February to June 2008. The rst group consisted of pupils from the Havlkovo Nmst Secondary School in Pragues ikov district, which is known for its signicant Roma community. The other secondary school was in Modrany, one of the biggest housing estates in Prague. Not only did the pupils learn black and white photography techniques and composition in workshops guided by experts, but black and white photography was also perceived as an important medium in the processes of mutual communication and self-expression. The aim of the workshops was to teach children interesting new skills and to bring them in contact with the world outside their community. The photographs resulting from the workshops were shown to the general public during an exhibition that took place in Prague in November 2008, as well as in two subsequent exhibitions in December 2008.

Workshop Together About Ourselves Multicultural Centre Prague

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Another outcome of the local projects was the documentary lm Your Street My Street for which selected children guided the lm team through their cities. This allowed the lm makers to see the childrens local communities through their eyes. The children also showed them the activities they did during the workshops. All outcomes from the local projects were presented at the Dialogue of Cultures festival held in Prague from 2-5 October, bringing together performers from the participating cities. The work of the young people was also exhibited during the Mediterranean Movies Festival from 28 November to 5 December in Brussels. Finally, the project website www.europeancity.cz which focuses on local integration, was designed to complement the activities within the agship project. Making use of the media items from the local workshops and providing additional background information, the website oers users a vivid picture of European cultural diversity by allowing them to take a virtual stroll through diverse European neighbourhoods.

Title: Cultures from Around the Block: Creating a European Network for Intercultural Community Activities Themes: Intercultural dialogue, Young people, Ethnic diversity in cities Lead organiser: Multicultural Center Prague Co-organisations involved: Research House (United Kingdom), Rejs e.V. Import-Export: Kultur (Germany); Nadacia Milan Simecku (Slovakia); Fundacja Nowa Ameryka (Poland); Komunitas Association (Romania); Centre Bruxellois dAction Interculturelle ASBL CBAI (Belgium) Countries: Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Belgium Target Group: Children, Young people Final product: Project website as an online source for articles, studies and reports on urban issues, documentary lm Website: www.europeancity.cz

School children at a photography skills workshop for an exhibition about dierent cultures in Coventry Research House, UK

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Tatapume
Intercultural Dialogue Radio Campaign
Tatapume is Greek for Lets talk. Although talking to another person in a dierent language can be dicult at times, there are nearly always benets. The Intercultural Dialogue Radio Campaign aimed to raise awareness of the extensive migratory movements in Europe and their impact on todays society. The main objective of the agship project was to give the European public an understanding of the extensive intercultural dialogue European populations have engaged in throughout history. The radio campaign was active from February 2008 to January 2009 and was implemented by seven dierent local radio stations and production centres in Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Spain. Over the course of 70 radio broadcasts, the project aimed to portray Europes migratory history from a new perspective via a linguistic, philological approach. To begin with ten themes were selected, this resulted in ten broadcasts. They were produced and broadcast without mention of historical dates, monarchs, or battles and instead took an unusual angle, focusing on issues of language. The broadcasts covered the following topics; identity, migration, cities, culture, food, commerce and nance, art, diculties of intercultural dialogue, and European identity in the past and presence. Under each of these themes, the seven partners developed their own broadcasts referring to specic circumstances in their countries. The broadcasts were based on interviews with authors and scientists, and accompanied by a bibliography and a short scientic paper.

Intercultural Dialogue Radio Campaign

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To summarise, the radio campaign focused on the following issues: contributions that the various cultures of European people have made to common European heritage the continuity of the social, cultural and religious phenomena connected to the current globalisation phase: our continent has experienced many other periods like the present one the impossibility of dening someone who lives in Europe as racially pure: everyone is the result of ethnic intermingling that has occurred over the years the importance of taking part in the present dialogue with people of dierent cultures through an awareness of who we are today The broadcasts in all the featured languages, as well as accompanying teaching tools (short scientic papers, bibliography and interview transcripts) can be downloaded from the website www.tatapume.org. All the material has been transcribed and uploaded in order to group together the educational documents and to make it widely available (e.g. to private individuals, scholars, teachers etc.). The nal conference, Radio Therapy Against Stereotypes, took place on 16 January 2009 in Seville, Spain, with workshops and discussions on the role of media and education in forming and overcoming stereotypes, and the opening of the accompanying photography exhibition.

The Wall, Chiara Burzigotti, Italy Photo competition Cultures on my Street

Title: Tatapume Intercultural Dialogue Radio Campaign Theme: language, migration Lead organiser: ERREPI S.p.A. Radio Popolare Co-organisations involved: Radio Orange (Vienna, Austria); Corali (Marseille, France); Radio Near FM (Dublin, Ireland); Radio Popolare (Milano, Italy); Klubradio (Budapest, Hungary); Radio Student (Ljubljana, Slovenia); EMA, Radio TV (Sevilla, Spain) Countries: Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain Target Group: Citizens living in the areas covered by the broadcast range of the seven partner radio stations; especially young people and their teachers. Final product: Broadcasts in all languages, as well as accompanying teaching tools for download Website: www.tatapume.org
Tatapume meeting, Sevilla

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Meeting the Other

See the Other Through Dierent Eyes
Migrants are often misperceived and associated with social conict and crime due to fear or lack of knowledge and communication. This prejudiced perception often keeps migrants in a state of exclusion, cutting them o from the host society and preventing them from making a clean start after migration to a new country. Tired of these misrepresentations, the Babelmed association initiated a project entitled Meeting the Other. Borders, Identities and Cultures in the European Space supported as one of the agship projects within the framework of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Meeting the Other was a multidisciplinary project with a special emphasis on cultural expressions created by migrants. It covered several areas including journalism, research and cultural production. The following organisations participated: Centre Mditerranen de la Communication Audiovisuelle (CMCA), Astragali Teatro, Lecce Theatre, Babelmed, Qantara.de, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the Paralleli Institut, La Pense de Midi, Lettera Internazionale, lInstitut de Recherche, Formations et dActions sur les Migrations.

Reunion of Strangers - Birmingham, Pavel Matela, Czech Republic Photo competition Cultures on my Street

Creativity Leads to Dialogue

Implementing the creative component of the project, Astragali Teatro organised a forum for young Europeans active in the performing arts. This included the production of a performance, a series of documentaries on memory, migration and intercultural dialogue and the creation of a virtual festival focused on intercultural dialogue. In Lecce, at the theatre headquarters, 20 young European artists were invited to consider the concept of migration. Their theatrical work and the results of their creative sessions were used in the theatre show We, emigrants (Noi emigrati) performed in Zollino station, once the railway centre for the waves of emigrants departing from Salento. As a platform for the virtual festival on intercultural dialogue, the organisers created www.babelmedfestival.net a virtual space for artists with artistic and conceptual approaches towards migration. The goal was to give visibility to artists and the opportunity to express their voices within the festival. The website is a pure web 2.0 experience allowing users of the site to exchange and share their artistic productions and ideas.
Meeting the Other, Barcelona Babelmed

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The IRFAM institute (lInstitut de Recherche, Formations et dActions sur les Migrations) in Belgium coordinated a collective research book on intercultural dialogue to ght inter-community antagonisms. On 20 and 21 October the closing event of the project Meeting the Other. Borders, identities and cultures in the European space took place. Babelmed and IEMed hosted this multicultural event in Barcelona. All the cultural actors active in the project were present and discussed the outcomes of the initiative.

Meeting the Other, Barcelona Babelmed

The online festival www.babelmedfestival.net presented extraordinary material such as the latest verses from German rapper Ammar114, the delicate voice of singer Saba Anglana, who has an Italian, Somali and Ethiopian background, French actress Hafsia Herzis rst steps to celebrity, Asli Bayram, the Miss Germany who became a moving Anne Frank at the theatre and the astonishing cinema productions of Nigerians who built another Nollywood (colloquial term for Nigerias booming lm industry) in Turin. A committee of young European and local journalists from Germany, Spain, Italy and France was created to write articles and to cover a wide range of issues on intercultural dialogue. The network was coordinated by the magazine Qantara.de, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the Paralleli Institut and Babelmed. The journalists maintained blogs, announced the main cultural events linked to interculturality (meetings, festival, etc.) and published regular articles and features on migration.

Title: Meeting the Other Borders, Identity and Cultures Theme: Intercultural dialogue, Migrant cultures, Cultural journalism Lead organiser: Associazione Culturale Babelmed Co-organisations involved: Astragali Teatro, EUFONIA societ cooperativa (Lecce, Italy); Centre Mditerranen de la Communication Audiovisuelle, CMCA (France); Institut Europeu de la Mediterrnia, IEMed (Barcelona, Spain); Paralleli Istituto Euromediterraneo del Nord Ovest (Turin, Italy); Institut de Recherche, Formation et dActions sur les Migrations, IRFAM (Lige, Belgium); La pense de midi association des sud (Marseilles, France); Lettera Internazionale (Rome, Italy); Qantara.de (Bonn, Germany) Countries: Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium Target group: young journalists, young European artists with immigrant backgrounds or migration experience Final product: two critical-thinking magazines (special editions of La Pense de Midi and Lettera Internazionale), one researchaction publication by IRFAM; one theatre performance by Astragali Teatro Website: www.babelmedfestival.net

Writing and Discussing to Meet the Other

Meeting the Other started with an intellectual examination of the terms interculturality and dialogue by two European magazines: La Pense de Midi from Marseilles and Lettera Internazionale from Rome. Both published special issues on the theme. Meeting the Other also featured other activities to stimulate contemplation such as seminars, meetings and round-tables. The content produced on dialogue and cultural diversity in Europe has been conveyed to the public through reviews, publications and websites.

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The StrangerFestival Calls!

The StrangerFestival was initiated by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) in collaboration with a network of European partners as one of the seven agship projects of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Promoting artistic expression through video-making, StrangerFestival is Europes biggest event for young video-makers and enthusiasts. The organisers of the initiative view interdisciplinary partnerships as a crucial tool for providing a larger number of young people with the means and opportunities for intercultural learning and exchange. During the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the StrangerFestival organised over 35 workshops in more than 20 countries, an open competition for young video makers and the festival itself in Amsterdam from 3-5 July. The ocial website www.strangerfestival.com was not only a huge success during 2008, but developed into an open archive of European videos where a system of tagging links the videos and their creators to each other.
StrangerFestival (Photograph: Mark Groeneveld)

The Mission
The philosophy behind the StrangerFestival is that self-expression and interaction through the medium of video equips young Europeans with fundamental citizenship skills and gives fresh talents much needed opportunities to have their creative potential discovered by a wider audience. The initiative not only places the individual videos in a broader context, it also establishes enduring ties between lmmakers and strangers across the continent. Videos made by young people have the potential to show unique worlds and views and therefore build a more exciting image of Europe today. As more and more young people gain access to the internet and new technologies, strangers are only a click away.

The StrangerFestival
The StrangerFestival took place at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, from 35 July 2008. It was open to everyone fans, amateurs and experienced video-makers. It featured a packed programme with numerous activities available to young video-makers, including 20 video and lm workshops, debate sessions, master classes, exhibitions and a spectacular StrangerAwards show. More than 200 young video-makers from dierent countries joined the event and took part in workshops and courses like Vlogging (How to make a good videoblog), VJ-ing, Dont be a Stranger (How to make a video portrait) or Are you really that good? The latter was an opportunity for young talents to pitch their work to a panel of experts including professionals from MTV and the BBC. The StrangerExhibition took place in the gigantic 2,500 m round Gashouder Space, and showcased the best work of video talents from around the world as well as the nalists of the StrangerAwards 2008. Visitors were invited to watch and vote for their favourite videos. The StrangerAwards 2008 and the MTV StrangerAwards, presented by media partner MTV Netherlands, formed part of a spectacular award show featuring urban multimedia theatre collective MC (Made in da Shade/Cosmic theatre) and Hit Me TV. The entertainment programme was complemented by a line-up of DJs.

I am very happy to see so much future European film talent at this festival. This shows for me that Europe has great potential in this field.
Sandra den Hamer, Director of the Amsterdam Film Museum and jury member for the StrangerAward

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The creative impulse that has emerged here has to be cherished. We owe it to the participants to turn this positive energy into actions.
Gottfried Wagner, Director of the European Cultural Foundation

The organiser, the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), was impressed with the rst festival in 2008. The stated aim, to facilitate intercultural dialogue between young Europeans in a custom-made way, had been fullled. The high quality workshops inspired more than 300 young people from all corners of Europe and brought them into contact with others who share their passion for an ever evolving medium.

The winner of the StrangerAward was Maciek Salamong from Poland with his lm The Walk, whereas Sylvain Koko Kinshasa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was awarded the MTV StrangerAward for his lm Alimentation dun congolais moyen (The Nutrition of an Average Congolese). Overall, the international jury was impressed by the quality of the videos uploaded on www.strangerfestival.com In the follow-up of the StrangerFestival, MTV Netherlands and other European broadcasters showed the best videos. More than 20,000 DVDs of the videos will be distributed and a selection is on show in museums across Europe. More than 900 video entries for the StrangerFestival 2008 can be viewed online at www.strangerfestival.com. Title: StrangerFestival Themes: Video, Youth, Media, Culture, Self-expression, Identity, Migration, Cultural Diversity, Dialogue, Sharing, Freedom of speech Lead organiser: European Cultural Foundation Co-organisations involved: Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art (UK), Amstel Televisie 5 (NL), BBC Blast (UK), BEELDENSTORM (B), Bekijkt (NL), Demos (UK), Digital Art Lab (IL), Drustvo Zaveznikov Mehkega Pristanka (SI), Imagine IC (NL), International Debate Education Association (NL), Kasal Roquetes (ES), Kiasma (FI), Kosmopolis (NL), Kosmopolis Rotterdam (NL), Kultura Miejska (PL), Kulturhuset Lava (SWE), Karpos Centre for Education and Intercultural Dialogue (GR), MC (Made in da Shade/Cosmic Theater) (NL), MTV Networks Benelux (NL), Resfest (Turkey), RTE (Ireland), Schlesische 27 (D), SIGNIS ROMANIA (RO), Sveriges Television (SWE), STANICA (SK), STEIM (NL), Tactical Technology Collective (UK), The One Minutes Foundation (NL), Videantz (B), Waag Society (NL), Westergasfabriek (NL), UNICEF Countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Curaao, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Surinam, Turkey, United Kingdom Target group: 15-25-year-old young people across Europe with diverse backgrounds, special emphasis on cultural minorities and under-represented groups Final product: Educational DVD, Research documents for download, online video archive Website: www.strangerfestival.com

StrangerFestival (Photograph: Mark Groeneveld)

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Signing ceremony of the Arts Festivals Declaration, Ljubljana

Arts Festivals as Players in an Intercultural Society

In 2008 the European Festivals Association (EFA), an organisation representing hundreds of arts festivals across Europe and beyond, initiated the Arts Festivals Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue. The Declaration denes a set of concepts, tools and means to illustrate how arts festivals play a powerful role in turning a multicultural society, in which dierent cultural groups live side by side, yet separately, into an intercultural society where all communities engage in meaningful interaction. With its Arts Festivals Declaration, EFA rst and foremost aimed at uniting arts and culture festivals of all kinds to engage in an ongoing intercultural dialogue. The Declaration species the important role of festivals for developing and promoting intercultural dialogue, and it called upon all European festivals, national associations and cultural networks to share experiences and best practices. The European Festivals Association invited all music, dance, theatre, rock, pop, jazz, literature, lm, philosophy, childrens and street art festivals as well as national festival associations and cultural networks across Europe and beyond to sign the Declaration. The full Declaration document can be downloaded in 26 languages at http://new.efa-aef.eu/FestivalsDeclaration

The journey of the Declaration is a marvellous example of stimulating grass-roots-level initiatives Europe-wide in intercultural dialogue. National associations and cultural networks will become strong partners in this endeavour.
Darko Brlek, EFA President

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Tour of Signing Ceremonies

A number of signing ceremonies took place throughout 2008. This greatly helped to increase visibility of the issue. EFA used the media coverage of these ceremonies to enlist even more festivals and associations in the initiative. The inauguration event for the tour of signing ceremonies was held on 8 January 2008 at the ocial opening of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Arts Festivals Declaration was signed in the presence of European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Jn Figel. A web page, www.efa-aef.eu, dedicated to the signing procedure, was set up as a showcase of best practices and outstanding projects implemented in the course of 2008. It also served to update visitors on the latest news from the world of European arts festivals. The second stop of the Declaration tour led to Tallinn, Estonia, where on 2 February 2008 the declaration was signed by 13 national festival associations and cultural networks. Signing ceremonies in Oslo and Antalya followed. In Turkey, during its General Assembly, EFA not only gained 60 Turkish festivals as new partners, but also extended the community of signatories to festival organisations from Africa and Asia committed to the objectives laid down by EFA. As a result of EFAs promotion of the Declaration, Belgian, Estonian, Finnish, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, British, Czech, and Irish festival associations as well as the European Early Music Network (REMA), the European Conference of Promoters of New Music (ECPNM) and the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) agreed to

take a leading role in engaging their hundreds of members and colleagues in their respective countries. In a second signing ceremony in Slovenia, several early music festivals, all of them members of REMA, signed the Arts Festivals Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue at a ceremony which took place at Breice Castle.

Festivals Promote Intercultural Dialogue

Showcase: spielzeit europa Each year, from October to February, a season of European dance and theatre is held at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin representing the idea of Europe and intercultural exchange. Theatre practitioners from all over Europe come to spielzeiteuropa to live and work together. In this context a European theatre language and new aesthetic means for portraying Europe and its identity are developed and put into practice. European actors and playwrights such as Isabel Huppert, Simon McBurney, William Forsythe or Robert Lepage have contributed to this outstanding project. Showcase: Childrens Festival The Helsinki Festival in Finland focuses on children and young people, and introduces them to European and national cultural topics through performances, theatre, dance and exhibitions. The Childrens Festival (Lasten juhlaviikot) is a very important component of the Helsinki Festival and includes intercultural art education targeted at young children. Many of the childrens plays and performances address issues of tolerance and respect for other people, in general and specic cultural contexts.

A R T S FE S T I VA L S

Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue

A N I N I T I AT I V E O F T H E E U R O P E A N F E S T I VA L S A S S O C IAT I O N

European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

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The T-parade, a carnival where dierent communities prepare oats and processions together for the rst strand of Intercultural Cities, Tilburg Council of Europe

Intercultural Cities
Today more than half of the worlds population lives in large cities each one of them a laboratory of intercultural cohabitation - where we encounter the problem of interdependence in a concentrated form. Successful cities and societies of the future will be intercultural: they will be able to manage and explore the potential of their cultural diversity to stimulate creativity and innovation and thus generate economic prosperity and a better quality of life. The ideal city of the future will not only cope with diversity, it will recognize it as a source of dynamism, innovation, creativity and growth. It will accept diversity as the norm and will help people from all groups, minorities as well as the majority, to arm their heritage and identity. The design of its public spaces as well as its policies related to education, social cohesion, housing, employment, and culture will enable people from dierent cultural backgrounds to mix, exchange and interact productively and creatively. This ambitious approach is at the heart of the Intercultural Cities programme, a joint undertaking by the Council of Europe and the European Commission. Participating cities across Europe were called upon to collect successful experiences and, through mentoring and good practice exchange, to inform and shape structures, policies and practices in other cities. For this purpose, the Intercultural Cities programme oers policy-auditing expertise, strategy-development guidance, networking and learning opportunities for pilot cities. In practice, the programme entails two phases within which several pilot cities review their policies through an intercultural lens and develop strategies to meet the challenges of a world in motion.

Mondinpiazza Festival, an annual event to celebrate diversity in Reggio Emilia Council of Europe

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How to Manage Diversity

In the rst strand, which runs from January 2008 until the end of 2010, 11 cities were selected from a group of 45 candidates to participate in the Intercultural Cities pilot project. The respective cities prepared written overviews of their diversity and integration policies in the main programme areas by using a policy-assessment grid which had been developed by the programme team. The cities participating in the pilot phase are: Berlin Neuklln (Germany), Izhevsk (Russian Federation), Lyon (France), Lublin (Poland), Melitopol (Ukraine), Neuchtel (Switzerland), Oslo (Norway), Patras (Greece), Reggio Emilia (Italy), Subotica (Serbia) and Tilburg (the Netherlands). The second strand of the programme, focusing on awareness and exchange, was carried out in partnership with EUROCITIES, the network association of major European cities. This phase aimed to facilitate the dialogue and exchange of good practices between politicians, citizens and municipal service providers in more than 20 large European cities and also to highlight the important role of local action in achieving real intercultural dialogue and European citizenship. At the heart of the awareness and exchange strand is a chain of visits from city to city. Each participating city was requested to send a team of two ambassadors, accompanied by liaison persons, to one other participating city in total 25 visits took place on the occasion of major local events and festivals based on the theme of intercultural dialogue during 2008. A second aspect of the tour focuses on sustainable structures for intercultural dialogue by compiling and evaluating activities and services provided by the dierent municipalities and assessing the transferability of individual practices. A nal conference in March 2009 and a publication summarising the main ndings allow municipalities all across Europe to access the pool of information.

intercultural cities cits interculturelles

So far
A group of international and national experts have been working with the authorities and other actors in the pilot cities, dening key features and success factors of their good practice in governance, public discourse and media ethics, intercultural mediation and cultural policies. These will be the basis for the development of tools to facilitate reviewing, discussion and learning processes in the participating beneciary cities. Two review visits have taken place in each participating city, involving discussions with stakeholders from local authorities, civil society, media, social services and various professions. A vision-building and strategy development for intercultural governance and policy-making has also begun in several cities. A generic intercultural strategy has been developed and will be validated during the second programme year. A media diversity package and a concept paper in the eld of governance have also been developed. The cities participating in the pilot phase are planning specic projects and actions. A report by the Council of Europe on Intercultural Cities is being prepared to create broader awareness of the programme method and of the intercultural approach to urban integration policies. Following the pilot phase, the programme will be reviewed and adapted if necessary. Background information on Intercultural Cities is available at: www.coe.int/interculturalcities

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Where are you from? exhibition by Norbert Francis which includes the installation Words for Dialogue curated by Atelier Culture Projects as part of the 1001 Actions for Dialogue, Freedom Square, Valletta, Malta Atelier Culture Projects

1001 Actions for Dialogue

Within the framework of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, the Anna Lindh Foundation launched the international campaign 1001 Actions for Dialogue. The Anna Lindh Foundation is an organisation shared and resourced by over 40 Euro-Mediterranean countries which aims to bring people together as a way of promoting dialogue between cultures and respect for diversity. To full this objective, the foundation leads regional initiatives in the Euromed region and supports local activities carried out by civil society organisations advocating a better understanding among people, religions and beliefs, and championing human rights and democracy. The 1001 Actions for Dialogue campaign was set up to mobilise people and groups across the Euro-Mediterranean region to actively engage in the promotion of dialogue by implementing various activities with the aim of getting to know the Other. The majority of the scheduled activities started simultaneously in March 2008 to enhance the visibility of the campaign. They culminated in a Dialogue Night featuring several simultaneous events happening across Europe during the night of 22 May. At the core of the 1001 Actions campaign was the aim to create maximum impact by acting together under one banner. Across many cultures and throughout history, the number 1001 has symbolized the maximum possible. One of the principal aims of the campaign was to mobilise, within a short period of time, the largest possible number of activities and initiatives for the promotion of dialogue.
The band Spectrum - a group of youths from dierent nationalities, at the Dialogue Night, Malta

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Among the cultural highlights of the night was a concert in Athens featuring musical acts from Istanbul, Tunisia, Cairo, Beirut, Avignon, Granada and Venice, as well as the group En Chordais who performed their award-winning A Tale of Music to a large audience. Simultaneously, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, people from all over Alexandria gathered at the ancient Quaitbey Fort for a concert by internationally acclaimed artist Fathy Salama who performed with various European musicians. The most signicant moment of the Dialogue Night came when all the participants of 1001 Actions signed the campaign by accessing an online book and writing their thoughts on the challenges and the enrichment of living together. The personal messages were streamed across the region via the Internet, and a lm for intercultural dialogue, in dierent languages, was presented in a number of countries. The Dialogue Night took place one week before the EuroMediterranean Ministerial Meeting on Culture. The president of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Andr Azoulay, presented the outcome of the Dialogue Night to the participating representatives of governments who met in Athens for the rst ever ministerial meeting on intercultural dialogue. Building on the success of the 1001 Actions for Dialogue campaign for the year 2008, which mobilised over 1000 dialogue events throughout the region, the successor campaign, Dialogue in Action, which is an online portal, aims at maintaining this momentum and involving even more organisations in a common campaign for the promotion of dialogue and mutual understanding in the region.

One of 70 events that took place on Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Night

The campaign was split into three phases: the rst phase served to inform and support members of the Anna Lindh Foundations network with the aim of developing project ideas and preparing the communication campaign including the website www.1001actions.org and promotional material. In the second phase, all eorts were poured into mobilising civil society groups and the general public to take part in the campaign by joining and organising dialogue activities. The communication campaign was also launched during this phase. The last phase, at the beginning of March, was concerned with the implementation of a huge number of activities and the celebration of the shared Mediterranean cultural space.

A Night for Dialogue

On 22 May 2008, the campaign culminated in a series of events under a common theme and headline: the promotion of dialogue between cultures during the Dialogue Night. For the rst time ever, a series of synchronized events took place across the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. These ranged from intercultural concerts in Beirut and Barcelona to public debates and cultural/social gatherings in the squares of Naples and Rabat. While the events were diverse in terms of substance and approach, they all focused on promoting the importance of issues relating to coexistence across the region.
Poster for Musical Footprints, Dialogue Night event, Limassol, Cyprus

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An intercultural wedding in Venice, Rocco Rorandelli, Italy Photo competition Cultures on my Street

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Introduction Initiatives Pan-European

Other Civil Society Initiatives

EFIL and AFS presented the multilateral project Worldoscope within the framework of the European Year 2008. The project gave 31 volunteers (aged 20-30) the opportunity to attend a three-week study tour in another country on a dierent continent in July and August 2008 in order to discover intercultural and inter-religious diversity. The Volunteer Summer Summit in Vigy, France on 30 July was attended by nearly 200 volunteers from 26 European countries and was a chance to share experiences and learning through workshops during a four day event. On 26 September 2008, EFIL announced the Intercultural Dialogue Day: More than 300 events took place and every activity reected the uniqueness of AFS and its volunteers. Panel debates, radio programmes, short lm competitions, mural paintings, and celebrations among exchange students with their host families are just some examples of these activities. To celebrate AFS Germanys 60th anniversary, the international conference Moving Beyond Mobility took place from 13 to 14 October in Berlin. High-prole scientists and practitioners from 13 countries discussed the current state of aairs in intercultural exchange experiences. More information is available at http://el.afs.org/e_en/home

Neighbours Day Celebrations, Modena, Italy

European Neighbours get Together

Ever since its creation in Paris in 1999, European Neighbours Day has become increasingly popular. On 27 May 2008 it was celebrated in 29 countries, 20 of which belong to the European Union. Over 9 million people in about 1,000 towns hosted neighbour gatherings, and in spite of bad weather in many countries, the enthusiasm of European citizens showed that solidarity is a shared goal and that people are prepared to pull together for a simple and generous project, regardless of their social background or cultural origins. The continuous increase in the number of participants is proof that the concept of living together in diversity knows no frontiers. European Neighbours Day is an initiative of the European Federation of Local Solidarity (EFLS). Its objective is to foster community cohesion in Europe by creating networks for exchanges on neighbourly and community practices. This is what makes European Neighbours Day a showcase for intercultural dialogue in practice. More information is available at www.european-neighbours-day.eu

The European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL)

EFIL and its AFS member organisations (formerly American Field Service) were particularly active during the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. EFIL is a leading European voluntary organisation in the eld of educational exchanges for secondary school pupils, through which thousands of volunteers promote the idea of mobility for the sake of intercultural dialogue.

Worldoscope Project, photography competition EFIL

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 Media Consulta

Policy Developments in Member States

A Motive for Change
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 provided many new impulses for policy developments and decisions in Member States regarding the promotion of intercultural dialogue and integration of immigrants. A few examples have been selected to highlight policy developments resulting from these eorts. importance of high-quality religious education and stress the need for mutual respect and tolerance. The role of religion as a positive and peace-building force in society is also emphasised.

Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, Intercultural Dialogue was placed at the core of education for the school year 2007-2008. All Czech schools participated, with cultural events, performances, conferences, seminars, publications, and research projects at local, regional and/or national levels.

Finland
Religious leaders of the three Abrahamic monotheistic religions in Finland signed the Helsinki Declaration on 28 October 2008 as their contribution to the objectives and aspirations of the European Year 2008. In the Helsinki Declaration, the religious leaders highlight the

Oxford Street, Zdeno Ziman, Slovakia Photo competition Cultures on my Street

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Ireland
Today, 10 % of people living and working in Ireland are non-Irish citizens. In view of these trends, the Irish government has launched a comprehensive programme reviewing government policies in different areas and testing them for their suitability in an intercultural society. In February, Irish Minister for Health, Mary Harney T. D., launched a National Intercultural Health Strategy which promotes greater access and inclusion of ethnic minority communities, migrants and asylum seekers to the health service. The primary objective of the strategy is to provide a framework through which service providers are supported in addressing the special care and needs of people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Understanding, Emilio Jose Mariel Albert, Spain Photo competition Cultures on my Street

France
In cooperation with the French National Agency for Equality and Social Cohesion, a campaign was set up which allowed for the evaluation of more than 500 projects promoting intercultural dialogue, many of which received the ocial label European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. The majority of the labelled projects belonging to this campaign in France have continued their activities well into 2009.

In the past, asylum seekers in Ireland were not entitled to further education, apart from basic literacy, whilst their status was being reviewed. Understandably, this proved to be an obstacle to their integration. The launch of the National Intercultural Education Strategy in October 2008 aims to accommodate diversity at all levels within the Irish education system. Specically, this includes the mainstreaming of education provision through inclusive practices by and for all involved in the education of both migrant and host communities at national and local levels. It also focuses on knowledge of English (and Irish) for all residents, partnership and engagement through dialogue with the education community, and on the notion that rights and responsibilities, high aspirations and high expectations, should be the same for all students.

Austria
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue has triggered the creation of a new department for Migration, Intercultural Education and Language Policy within the Austrian Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, which will ensure the sustainability of the results achieved during the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Teaching sta increasingly need intercultural competencies in order to fully meet the needs of pupils in culturally heterogeneous classes. In reaction to this, the Austrian government has put an emphasis on the promotion of diversity management and languages in education in its programme 2008 to 2013. In addition to this, the programme commits government policies to increased eorts for the recruitment of school sta of immigrant origin, to the facilitation of international student mobility and to measures for raising equality and eciency in education.

Looking after you, Jose Farinha, UK Photo competition Cultures on my Street

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Launch of EYID postage stamp, Ireland NCCRI

Communication: Best Practice Examples

Throughout the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, joint eorts on a European and national level enhanced the visibility of the communication campaign accompanying the Year. The following list presents some outstanding cases in which national partners successfully managed to attract media and public attention to issues of Intercultural Dialogue. On 6 November 2008, Dutch public broadcaster NPS organised The Diversity Show, an international meeting and workshop for people dealing with intercultural topics within the media. On ve weekends, from June to September 2008, the quiz competition EuroQuiz tested the knowledge of Polish citizens in nine major Polish cities. In Austria, the Dialogue Tour took place from 4 April to 6 May 2008 in all regional capitals. More than 180 non-governmental organisations, together with educational and cultural institutions, got on stage to present their projects as well as musical and artistic performances addressing the subject of intercultural dialogue. The national Austrian radio and television network covered the tour in regional news broadcasts. On 30 November 2008, a major Cypriot newspaper, O Phileftheros, presented a special edition dedicated to intercultural dialogue with a feature called Telling the Story, in which twelve famous nonGreek artists living and working in Cyprus depicted intercultural dialogue through their own stories. Irish national television channel RTE dedicated a section on their website www.rte.ie to intercultural initiatives and broadcast a special set of programmes on intercultural dialogue and anti-racism during the Intercultural Dialogue Week between 7 and 14 April 2008. In a special series of 100 one-minute interviews, Hungarian artists, athletes and professionals from the cultural sector oered their views on intercultural dialogue and spoke about their personal backgrounds. All video clips were made available for download via the websites of MTV Europe Hungary and Spektrum Television Hungary throughout 2008. Media cooperations in Malta such as the media endorsement of the Intercultural Memorandum on the initiative of the European Parliament oce in Valletta and a special edition of Maltas most popular TV discussion programme focusing on Intercultural

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Dialogue generated more than 300 press clippings and hours of television material related to the Year, including 13 prime time news items. In Austria, The campaign Get to Know it featured small signs placed on the handrails of city buses in Salzburg. On each of them, an inhabitant of Salzburg introduces himself or herself, describing what they particularly like about Salzburg. The signs also featured mini language courses with the aim of raising awareness among Salzburg citizens of the dierent languages spoken by citizens from immigrant backgrounds in their city. In Belgium, the city of Antwerp trained a group of thirty intercultural volunteers, or stewards, to assist Antwerps citizens in their daily intercultural challenges. Among the tasks of these intercultural stewards was, for example, active participation in information sessions and networking. In Greece, the Representation of the European Commission organised an event at the Rio-Antirrio Bridge with school students from immigrant communities which included an open dialogue with politicians and well-known personalities from immigrant backgrounds as well as a human chain with the participation of about 200 children. In March 2008, the Years Irish national partner launched a stamp with the Years logo. On 24 June 2008 Jn Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth took part in a press conference to launch a special Thalys high speed train decorated with the logo of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. The European Commission, UEFA and Football Against Racism in Europe kicked o the 2008-2009 football season with the joint TV spot Dierent languages, one goal promoting tolerance through languages and sport. Under the title One World Project, presented by Tilos Rdi, a one-year programme series dedicated to the diversity of cultures in the world was broadcast in Hungary. A 38-page free almanac informed the public about intercultural dialogue and the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. In Estonia, a competition for young journalists in school newspapers and school radios based on the slogan Together in Diversity was held from January to May 2008.

In Latvia, the Journalists Award 2008 aimed to recognise journalists who represent ideas of unity in spite of diversity and anti-discrimination in the media. The competition was announced in July 2007 and submissios were published from January to September 2008. A competition for young journalists in Lithuania was devised to actively engage young and upcoming talents in discussions about Intercultural Dialogue. Young people from 19 to 28 years of age studying or working in the eld of journalism had an opportunity to win a grant for their publications. In collaboration with the local media, the selected winners have since published articles analysing various aspects of the dialogue between cultures. From April to June 2008 the Caravan of Intercultural Dialogue in Romania brought together 180 high school pupils of dierent national minorities and of ethnic Romanian origin as well as 18 accompanying professors. The main aim of this contest was to raise awareness of the culture, traditions and history of the national minorities in Romania and to enhance the intercultural communication skills of the participants. In Latvia, an essay writing competiton, Tea for Two, ran from April to September 2008 and was designed to enable secondary school childern to engage with the concept of intercultural dialogue. Information about the competiton was disseminated through the Latvian Administrative Centre for Schools which ensured direct contact with almost every school in Latvia. Three winning essays were selected and a prize giving ceremony took place during the Festival of Ethnic Minorities in Riga. The Italian competition for cities, Mosaico Melting the Colours of Europe ended with an award ceremony and a concert. Mayors of Italian cities were invited to the nal round on 19 September 2008 in Viareggio, where the award of Italian City of Intercultural Dialogue was given to three cities. On 13 December 2008, the German ambassadors of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 in Germany Minh-Khai Phan-Thi, Navina Omilade, Martin Hyun, Moon Suk and representatives of the soccer club HERTHA BSC were thanked on the occasion of a German Bundesliga soccer game in front of a crowd of 30,000 people. In Denmark, Dialogue Benches, were placed in public squares in various municipalities. While sitting on these benches, people were encouraged to talk with neighbours, friends, family members or strangers.

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National Conferences during the European Year 2008

Intercultural dialogue is multi-faceted. Many national partners took the opportunity of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 to discuss, examine and reect on dierent aspects of intercultural dialogue in the form of conferences. The following is only a selection of the national conferences held during 2008.

Title Intercultural Dialogue as the Fundamental Value of the EU Inauguration of the European Year on International Mother Language Day The Dynamics of Intercultural Dialogue in Lithuania and Europe: experience, practice, and prospects Dialogue interculturel et diversit culturelle, un dbat renouvel (A Renewed Debate: Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Diversity) Multicultural Education - Our Future Forum Cultures speak Challenges and Perspectives for Cultural Diversity in Education National Teachers Conference Diversity Connects Intercultural Dialogue 2008 Lets Change Together Europe, the World and Humanity in the 21st Century The Role of Music and Teaching of Music in Facilitating Intercultural Dialogue and Musical Networks for Intercultural Dialogue. From Monologue to Dialogue Meetings Nicosia Larnaka: Mediterranean Cities and Intercultural Dialogue Inspiration for the willingness to initiate and implement intercultural projects Together in Diversity Will Estonian Youth Succeed in the Future? New Paradigms, New Models Culture in the EU External Relations Intercultural Dialogue in Lifelong Learning Inauguration of the Euro - Mediterranean University (EMUNI) Piran - Portoro

Date 78 January 21 February 1314 March 1314 March 17 March 17 March 21 March 31 March MarchJuly 1013 April 14 April

Country Ljubljana, Slovenia, Poland Lithuania France Prnu, Estonia Estonia Cyprus Slovak Republic Lithuania Slovenia Greece

1718 April 1720 April 2324 April 9 May 9 May 1314 May 20 May 9 June

Turku, Finland Cyprus Hungary Hungary Estonia Ljubljana, Slovenia Budapest, Hungary Slovenia

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Symposium: A Chance for Europe: Multilingualism. Can Europe Learn from India and South Africa? Lebensweltliche Mehrsprachigkeit (Everyday Multilingualism) Polish-Slovak-Czech Day The Functions and Potentials of Choir Music in Intercultural Dialogue and Reconciliation Finding Danish Democracy Art, Culture and Intercultural Dialogue Intercultural Dialogue in Education and Learning Il patrimonio vivente: verso la creazione di una lista UNESCO per il patrimonio culturale immateriale (Living heritage: towards the creation of a UNESCO list for immaterial cultural heritage) Laboratory for the Future Multilingualism, Multiculturism and Education Economy and Society of Knowledge: Cultural Policies in the Euro Mediterranean Quadrant Les conceptions du dialogue interculturel (Concepts of Intercultural Dialogue) Intercultural Dialogue: From the School to the Society, National Students Conference Can There be Life Without the Other? The Possibilities and Limits of Interculturality Rehearsing the Future: School and Intercultural Dialogue Theres Trouble in the air - Challenges in Cultural Interaction International Conference: Languages and Intercultural Dialogue From Multiculturalism to Intercultural Dialogue How soon is Now? The Politics of Interculturality An Overview on Women in Mediterranean Societies, From Ancient to Modern Times Media and Intercultural Dialogue Culture of Dialogue Ethnic Dimension Youth and Inter-Religious Dialogue Conference and Exhibition in Cooperation With the Foundation for the Life Long Learning Programmes Our Society is Multilingual our Educational System, too? Respecting Diversity Urban Change in Eastern and Central Europe: Social, Cultural and Architectural Transformations Lets Talk European Debates on Values

11 June 1215 June 16 June 27-31 July 29 August 18 September 2 October 34 October

Vienna, Austria Austria Poland Hungary Denmark Vienna, Austria Copenhagen, Denmark Italy

611 October 810 October 911 October 21 October27 November 24 October 2728 October 2831 October 5 November 79 November 12 November 1213 November 13 November 14 November 14 November 2 December 23 December 45 December 5 December 1213 December all through 2008

Germany Klagenfurt, Austria Ravello, Italy Belgium Cyprus Portugal Vienna, Austria Denmark Cyprus Romania Sweden Paestum, Italy Portugal Latvia Portugal Cyprus Austria Cyprus Vilnius, Lithuania Poland

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Children, Javier Arcenillas, Spain Photo competition Cultures on my Street

Learning from the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue generated an impressive line-up of activities throughout and beyond 2008. Recent policy developments in various Member States have also proven that the message and eorts of the European Year 2008 will echo far beyond the Year itself. As a result of many initiatives, the knowledge gained throughout the year has been made available on a long-term basis in print, audio and online media. Here is a selection of publications, studies and training toolkits designed within the framework of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. one of the tools the government uses to facilitate the integration of families that primarily speak languages other than German. It contains extensive information on the Austrian school system and information on the rights and obligations of parents in their respective native language. This medium was chosen in order to reach out to parents with weak reading abilities who often have diculties in obtaining information via print publications or the internet and who require information tailored to their needs. A CD ROM on the intercultural dimension of school curricula in Cyprus entitled All the World is one World was given to all Cypriot primary schools within the framework of a pan-Cypriot training programme. A textbook for Romanian history teachers published by the Regional Centre for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe was the result of a two-year initiative entitled Project on Ethnic Relations. The book aims to help teachers present the history of national minorities in Romania, such as Roma and Hungarians, and it is intended to be used in history lessons for all children, especially

Intercultural Dialogue for the Young Generation and Their Teachers

On the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, Claudia Schmied, Austrian Minister for Education, Arts and Culture, stressed the governments focus on multilingualism and integration and drew attention to the many advantages of cultural diversity. A multilingual DVD for parents of immigrant origin is

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those of the majority group, in order to reduce stereotypes by spreading knowledge. In Slovenia, the DVD Richness in Diversity: Learning for Quality Coexistence in a Multicultural Environment was produced as part of the European Year 2008 by the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education. Czech Republic: People in Need: Programmes of Multicultural Education is a collection and analysis of the eectiveness of multicultural educational programmes. One part of the brochure focuses on teaching methods (communication, interaction, working with prejudices and stereotypes etc.). The main part is dedicated to specic ethnic, religious and other groups and focuses on topics such as neo-Nazi movements, sub-culture issues or gender matters.

The Austrian project Creative Thinking for an Innovative Management of Cultural Diversity brought together students, teachers, artists and experts from 24 countries. The young participants and their teachers formed cross-border teams and developed ideas on linguistic, innovative, social and educational aspects of cultural diversity. At the nal event in Graz (Austria) and Maribor (Slovenia), the projects and experiences were presented and discussed in workshops, at the Market of Ideas or during the Long Night of Intercultural Dialogue.

Research
In October 2008, the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) in Ireland published a compilation of key research ndings to propose an intercultural approach to housing policy, and another scientic publication on standards for interpreting and translation policy. In February 2008, a research project was launched by the Irish Arts Council to present its Intercultural Arts Strategy. The National Centre for Culture in the Podlaskie District of Poland conducted a research project entitled Beyond Tolerance - The Attitudes of Young People Towards Cultural Otherness in the Perspective of Social Interactions. One objective of the research was to initiate activities highlighting the cultural heritage of Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians and to increase their visibility as part of a recognizable European heritage. The Austrian Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture commissioned the Institute EDUCULT to prepare a report on Arts, Culture and Intercultural Dialogue. The report assesses the current demographic, legal and political framework as well as opportunities, problems and perspectives for those working in the eld of culture. It oers a set of recommendations for the decision making process and is completed by a number of examples of good practice.

Seminars and Training

The Hungarian conference and training course Managing International Cultural Projects was intended to help project organisers gain relevant knowledge about the nature of intercultural projects, how to organise them and how to familiarize themselves with the subject of cultural diversity in general. The material provided also included examples of good practices, and a list of international experts. Under the title Lets Meet - Dierent Does Not Mean Alien, the National Centre for Culture of the town of Lublin in Poland organised a series of workshops and training courses on intercultural communication for young people. The aim of the project was to highlight the multicultural situation in the Polish-Ukrainian border region through creative meetings between teenagers from both sides of the border.

It is of utmost importance [] to identify and promote the talents of children and teenagers with an immigration background []. This sort of empowerment is an enrichment for our whole society. Claudia Schmied,
Austrian Minister for Education, Arts and Culture

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Kashubian dancers, inauguration of EYID, Gdask, Poland

Culture Comes Alive

The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue came alive through festivals, exhibitions, stage performances and concerts, mixing entertainment and the important message of intercultural dialogue. Many national partners used the opportunity to creatively urge their citizens to embark on a cultural journey, discovering the advantages and possibilities of intercultural communication and getting to know minorities and new cultures in their respective countries.

France: African French Festival

The African Festival, from 24 June to 12 July 2008, focused on relations between French society and its African immigrants. More than 9,500 visitors enjoyed three live shows given by choreographers Mose Tour and Jean-Claude Gallota, 2147 lAfrique, Kettly Nol and Dieudonn Niangouna, Chez Rosette, and Heddy Maalem, Le Sacre du Printemps. The laureates of the Seventh Gathering of African Choreographers and the Indian Ocean called Danse lAfrique Danse also staged their winning performances. A series of concerts with prominent gures from the African music scene such as Salif Keita, Mory Kant and Didier Awadi brought melody to the festival. A symposium allowed the participants to reect on the artistic scene in Africa and discuss its ties with Europe.

Austria: Turkey Right now.

From 4 November 2008 to 1 February 2009, the Istanbul Foundation for Art and Culture together with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture presented aspects of everyday culture from Turkey in the form of lm screenings, art exhibitions, concerts and photo exhibitions. Under the banner Turkey Right Now. Aspects of Everyday Culture, the Turkish Cultural Weeks 2008 in Vienna aimed to inform people about contemporary Turkey and to contribute to the dialogue between Turkish people living in Austria and the Austrian majority. More information is available at: www.tuerkischekulturwochen.at

Czech Republic: Our Islam

The project Our Islam (N Islm) in the Czech Republic was conceived to promote the idea of an open civil society. A theatre performance in documentary style brought the central theme, the reection on the role of Islam in European and Czech media, to life.

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Austria, Finland, Estonia: Living Books

Did you ever read a person? In Austria, Estonia and Finland the project living books brought people together who would not necessarily have met in their everyday lives. Based on a Council of Europe idea, living books was designed as a participatory art project in public space. In a similar way to a public library, living books people of dierent cultural backgrounds, heritage, gender or religion could be borrowed by readers for a personal conversation in a relaxed atmosphere. The range of books included people coming from groups which are often confronted with prejudices.

Denmark: Intercultural Video Marathon

Renton performing at the Polish-Slovak-Czech Day, a high-prole conference, Poland

The project targeted the Czech youth, the general public, minorities and immigrants. More information on the project is available at: www.reptos.cz

Belgium: The kifkif-Awards

The kifkif-awards in Belgium were a contest for artistic talents from ethnic minority groups. Participants could choose workshops and classes from the elds of dance, music and spoken word. The nalists were given a budget of 5,000 euros to further extend their act under the coaching of professional artists, among them Flemish dancer and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

The goal of The Intercultural Video Marathon was to nd the best lm on intercultural dialogue. The lm competition was conducted simultaneously in 30 dierent schools throughout Denmark. Each team received all the necessary lm equipment in a box (digital camera, tapes etc.) and was given access to computers and support for editing at Nordisk Film in Copenhagen. The winning lms were presented during the closing ceremony of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in November 2008, and were scheduled to air on local and national television channels in January 2009.

Spain: 2008 Culturas

The objective of the online platform 2008 Culturas, www.2008culturas. com, was to create a space that both enables and facilitates communication, the exchange of experiences and dialogue between cultures using the Internet as a common meeting ground. The project was designed to increase respect for cultural diversity while simultaneously highlighting common cultural heritage within a context in which citizens are the protagonists. 2008 Culturas was realized as a double initiative that uses the Internet as a dynamic, democratic medium for the creative stimulation of people all over the world. It was set up as a web portal divided into two large sections: The Exhibition, a virtual show comprising forty pieces that include photography, short lms, web art, music and video art and The Award Competition.

Intercultural Dialogue in Education and Learning Conference, Denmark

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Estonia: Film Tour

A lm tour through four Estonian cities featured a screening of the lm Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, European Ambassador of the Year, followed by lectures on themes related to intercultural dialogue by Estonian Ambassador of the Year David Vseviov.

Bulgaria: An International Culinary Night

On 15 December 2008, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria, and the Association of Chefs in Europe organised an International Culinary Night at the Grand Hotel in Soa, Bulgaria. The culinary festival was set up in partnership with the Embassies and the cultural institutes of 20 dierent countries. The display of the rich diversity of the selected national cuisines marked the end of the celebrations relating to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 in Bulgaria.

The Long Night of Languages, Austria

France: Free Concert with Jordi Savall

In celebration of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and the French national holiday, the Ambassador of the Year, Jordi Savall, gave a free concert on 14 July 2008 together with his wife, the internationally renowned opera singer Montserrat Figueras, and members of the musical formation Hesperion XXI.

The programme Orient-Occident, which was specically put together for the occasion, presented music of ancient Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions from the Mediterranean area as well as from Persia and Afghanistan.

Austria: The Long Night of Languages

On 25 September, people in Vienna, Styria and Burgenland were offered the experience of perceiving the world through other languages. The Long Night of Languages featured workshops, readings and short language classes in various locations. The focus was on migrant languages. During the night, a historic tram drove through Vienna, allowing interested members of the public to participate in mini-language courses in Croatian, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic, to name a few. In addition, authors with various cultural backgrounds held public readings.

Portugal: Express of Nations and Musical for Children

From 24 to 29 June, a special train, the Nations Express took 120 young people, aged 14 to 17 and from diverse national and cultural backgrounds, on a symbolic journey to the city of Porto. The musical Gira-Mundos by the High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue in Portugal, conveyed the importance of intercultural dialogue in an increasingly plural society to children aged ve to twelve years.

Gira-Mundos touring musical for children, Portugal

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Luxembourg: Work, Celebrate and Live Together

On 26 September, the Cultural Department of Luxembourg celebrated the merits of intercultural dialogue. Under the banner Work, Celebrate and Live Together, the festivities aimed to move beyond purely professional relations and towards an intercultural dialogue between the citizens of Luxembourg and its neighbouring countries. The organisers also hoped to inspire regional community spirit among Luxembourgs citizens. Information stands, music performances and culinary events presented the characteristics of Luxembourgs Grand Region to all visitors.

Bulgaria: HOUSES
The Bulgarian National Project for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 is named HOUSE (an acronym formed from Home of Our Unity in Sincere Embracement). The house is not only a cherished place, it is also a symbol of unity and the preservation of traditions and values. The Bulgarian house, with its particular architecture and arrangement, symbolizes traditional Bulgarian hospitality and is a part of Bulgarias contribution to European culture. In the framework of the project the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, in close cooperation with the embassies and foreign cultural institutes in Bulgaria and other national coordinators of the Year, organised a photographic exhibition of traditional houses in European countries: The HOUSES: Architectural Signs of Cultural Diversity, this consisted of over 50 photos from 19 countries.

International culinary night celebrating the close of the EYID, Bulgaria

Hungary: The Other

A learning programme for use in exhibitions and museums called A Msik (The Other) showed children aged 10 18 years the dierences in cultures and how anybody can become an outsider, depending on the point of view. The curator, the Artemisszi Foundation, prepared a teaching concept to accompany the programme.

Slovenia: EU Road Show

Slovenia organized a number of promotional events within the Year of Intercultural Dialogue which coincided with Slovenias EU Council Presidency in the rst six months of 2008. In Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, Denmark, Lithuania, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Sweden a number of promotional events were organised by the Road Show with the aim of presenting essential elements of intercultural dialogue through selected topics and bringing them closer to the target audience, particularly young people.

Sweden: Home Not Home

The Swedish project Home not Home presented contemporary theatre with a stage adaptation of the lm Head On produced by Riksteatern; installation art with the video Restore Hope: See Me! produced by Swedish Travelling Exhibitions; and the forum The Room in Between, which oered discussions, audience research and seminars organised by Intercult, Re:Orient and Sprong. The project toured in 24 Swedish cities and also visited a number of cities abroad, namely Berlin in Germany, and Diyarbakir and Istanbul in Turkey.

Home not Home in Sweden

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Malta: Shaping all Senses for Intercultural Dialogue

FIVE, Maltas national project for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, took a vast audience on an exciting intercultural journey challenging all ve senses. Throughout the whole year, dierent subprojects displayed the importance of the senses in the perception of a complex and rich intercultural reality. Sound was at the heart of Teddy Goes Round the World!, a project featuring a small bear who discovers new countries and their musical cultures and shares his travel stories in interactive performances with a young audience. The participants in the project Pictures in My Mind took part in a series of workshops to explore how culture and previous experiences inuence peoples perceptions of places, and also to learn about photography and its history. The sense of taste came into play with Taste a Shared Culture: An Intercultural Journey in the World of Food. To show that migration in Europe also constantly changes our culinary range and experience, four exhibitions displayed recipes from all over the world in Maltese supermarkets. A Suq within a Suq (Market within a Market) allowed the discovery of intercultural dialogue through the handicraft of local and foreign artisans. Over a period of ve months, a multicultural group of artists travelled to various local open air markets exhibiting their crafts while creating new items.
Pictures in My Mind exhibition, Malta

Romania: Identities in Dialogue

As part of the national PUZZLE project in Romania, the National Network of Romanian Museums organised Identities in Dialogue, a virtual museum allowing a dialogue between people about their cultural and ethnic identity, their fears and real or imaginary harassments. To achieve this, the museums collection featured elements of the history of Romanian migrations, be they Jewish, Armenian, German or Hungarian, and compared them to those of ethnic Romanians. The goal was to allow a dierent type of dialogue, one that is open and sincere, avoiding political correctness for the sake of truth and debate uninhibited by stiing rules. Furthermore, the virtual museum functioned as a public platform for debates and the promotion of the traditions and arts of the minorities in Romania.

Jan Figel, Marek Maari, Minister of Culture and Duan aplovi, Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic at the conference Diversity Connects, Bratislava, Slovakia

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Austria: Dance the Tolerance

The community dance project Tanz die Toleranz (Dance the Tolerance) in Austria combined the liberating power of dance and movement with intercultural dialogue. The series of dance classes addressing integration issues gave people from all origins and nationalities, regardless of their previous dance experience, the chance to participate in a uniting process that also brought them closer to their dancing partners. Anybody interested in dance, intercultural dialogue or just a new experience was welcomed to take part in the dance sessions. Last but certainly not least, a side project of Dance the Tolerance entitled quertanzen, united 130 pupils from dierent Austrian schools in a unique dance experience. For two months, they trained twice a week under the supervision of local professional choreographers and created four exquisite dance performances accompanied by music composed specially for this project by Bernhard Fleischmann. The four dance performances were then put together to form a collective work of art called querverbunden.

UK: Exhibition Road Music Day

In the UK, the European Commissions Representation collaborated with the Serpentine Gallery and the Royal Parks to support the Exhibition Road Music Day, a festival of free live music from around the world. On 21 June 2008, Exhibition Road, at the heart of Londons cultural district, provided the setting for over 150 live musical performances. Highlights included German electro punk act MIA, a magical mix of funk, jazz, hip-hop and gospel music by Frances Bibi Tanga et le Professeur Inlassable, British blues sensation Florence and the Machine and a celebration of traditional and contemporary music performed by the Ismaili Community Ensemble in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The day of music provided an opportunity to celebrate Londons cultural diversity.

Festivities for Europe Day

In celebration of Europe Day on 9 May, Representations of the European Commission in various Member States organised festivities with a special emphasis on intercultural dialogue: In the Czech Republic, an open-air event and concert in the centre of Prague along with a stand by the Czech EU Representation informed spectators about intercultural dialogue. In Italy the writing competition A Journey in Europe focused on the knowledge of European cultures and languages. The winners attended the award-giving ceremony held in Rome at the Quirinal Palace on 9 May 2008 in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, and EU-Commissioner Leonard Orban.

Pottery workshop in Arthur Verona Street, Bucharest, Romania

Slovakia: Mosaic of the Cultures

The Mosaic of the Cultures festival, held at end of October in Nitra, was one of the European Years key events in Slovakia. The three day festival was opened by Robert Hajel, Director of the Information Oce of the European Parliament in the Slovak Republic. The aim of the festival was to engage with and respect the richness of other cultures. There were a number of debates around issues such as intectultural dialogue in Europe. In addition the festival oered concerts and poetry; among the highlights were gospel singers who created a fantastic atmosphere in the Piaristic church.

In Malta, the festivities addressed the themes of climate change and intercultural dialogue, as Maltese students engaged policy makers in a parliamentary debate on climate change and intercultural dialogue. Chaired by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the debate included ministers, Members of Parliament, representatives of environmental non-governmental organisations and Maltese Members of the European Parliament who answered questions asked by attending students. In Romania, Panayotis Carvounis, Deputy Director-General of the Commissions Directorate General Communication dedicated an outdoor event to the Europe Day in Braov. More than 1,000 participants, mostly children and teenagers from Romania, Germany and Hungary, took part.

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Committee of the Regions, Brussels

7 June 2008: Open Doors at the European Institutions

This annual event is justiably called a Festival of Europe, it forms a celebration of European cultural diversity through music, dance, public debates and activities for young people and adults alike. Each year a diverse programme is organised by European institutions, grass roots associations, artists and the general public. The 2008 festival took place in the context of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and shared some of the ambitions of the Year: to foster curiosity and active exchange not only between individuals, dierent cultural groups or nations, but also between institutions and the public. Continuing the tradition of the Open Day, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee were open to the public all day. Visitors were able to follow a EuroTour starting at the European Parliament and leading through Parc Lopold, across Place Jean Rey and up to the Rond-Point Schuman. A team from the Commissions Directorate-General for Education and Culture was present at the Berlaymont building and at the Parliament, informing guests about the European Year 2008 and the activities associated with it. Les Virtuosi, an intercultural band composed of musicians from various countries also gave a stage performance outside the Berlaymont. Two of the Years pan-European projects were presented during the open door day: IYOUWE share the world, organised by the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, and the European Cultural Foundations StrangerFestival.

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Committee of the Regions

Conference on Intercultural Dialogue at the Heart of Europes Cities and Regions
The event took place on 25 and 26 November 2008 and was organised by the Committee of the Regions in cooperation with the European Commissions Directorate-General for Education and Culture and Notre Europe, the European think-tank founded by Jacques Delors. The Forum provided an opportunity to discuss the approaches adopted by Europes cities and regions to intercultural dialogue, addressing the topic from a European perspective and highlighting best practices from cities and regions. The three debates comprising the event focused on migration and integration, diversity, inter-religious issues and the development of a European identity. Regions organised a photography competition for young Europeans which was based on the theme of intercultural dialogue. The six winning photographs were selected for their relevance to this theme and for their visual impact.

Intercultural Ireland in Cooperation with the Irish Representation

To mark Irelands contribution to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Martin Cullen T.D. hosted a concert and conference in Leuven, Belgium, to discuss and showcase intercultural dialogue in Ireland in the arts, culture, audiovisual, sports and tourism sectors. On 5 November, an Intercultural Ireland conference and showcase took place in the Committee of the Regions, featuring speakers from the arts, tourism, lm, television and sport sectors as well as the national ambassadors for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.

Photo Competition: Intercultural Dialogue in the EU: What Does it Mean to you?
Within the framework of the Europe Works project, and in collaboration with the think tank Notre Europe and the photo agency VU, the Party of European Socialists Group within the Committee of the

European Economic and Social Committee

Organised Civil Society as an Engine for Intercultural Dialogue
The conference was organised in the framework of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue by the EESC and the Economic and Social Council of Slovenia, whose President Mr Milan kapin together with Mr Dimitris Dimitriadis, President of the EESC, ocially opened the event. discussions and readings by immigrant authors, it provided a hub for various political, intellectual and literary points of view. Commissioner Orban underlined the importance of the concept of the adoptive language proposed by the high level group chaired by writer Amin Maalouf which was set up on the initiative of the European Commission and which was represented at the conference by Jacques de Decker from the Belgian Royal Academy. The conference included a series of academic and literary readings and discussions on the process of writing in a second language and the impact of intercultural dialogue inside and outside Europe. Readings were performed by Adil Erdem (author of Kurdish origin who writes in Danish), Kristina Goikoetxea Langarika (Spanish-Basque author who writes in Dutch), Saviana Stnescu (Romanian author who writes in English), Dimitr Dinev (Bulgarian-Austrian author who writes in German) and Giorgio Pressburger (author of Hungarian origin who writes in Italian).

Immigrant Literatures: Writing in Adopted Languages

Organised by EUNIC Brussels in cooperation with the EESC, the conference took place at the EESC, on 24 April in Brussels. Opened by Leonard Orban, European Commissioner for Multilingualism, the conference had an extremely diverse programme. Through a series of speeches,

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Sir Jonathan Sacks, Bartholomew I, the Dalai Lama, Wole Soyinka European Parliament

The European Parliament and the European Year 2008

The European Parliament has been committed to intercultural dialogue for a long time. The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue provided an opportunity to showcase the Parliaments numerous initiatives in this eld. Religious leaders were invited to address the plenary assembly, and a lm festival, art exhibitions and thematic weeks were organised. Sampaio, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations and a former President of Portugal promoted cultural diversity in his speech on 22 October. Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, visited the European Parliament on 19 November. The series of addresses to Parliament concluded with a speech by the Dalai Lama on 4 December.

Eminent Speakers
On the invitation of the Conference of Presidents, a number of eminent personalities addressed the European Parliament. In a speech delivered on 16 January to MEPs on the subject of intercultural dialogue, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, stressed the value of culture as a unifying rather than a dividing force. Ms Asma Jahangir, United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, addressed the Plenary on 18 June. Oscar Arias, President of Costa Rica and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 spoke on 3 September 2008, and Orthodox Christian leader Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, spoke on 24 September. Jorge

African Week 811 September

As part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the African Week featured political and cultural events and speakers such as EP President Hans-Gert Pttering, Pan-African Parliament President Gertrude Mongella and Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka, who presented their views on the subject. A round-table discussion on the role of the African diaspora was held by the Committee on Development and chaired by its President Josep Borrell. A joint meeting of Members of the Pan-African Parliament and Members of the ACP-EU Joint-Parliamentary Assembly took place on the last day of the African Week.

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Inside and around the Parliament building, an array of visual installations showcased contemporary Arab art works. The main focus was Re-Orientations, an exhibition of paintings, photographs, sculptures, tapestry and videos from over 30 contemporary Arab artists, this was the rst exhibition of its kind to be shown in the European Parliament. Boubeker Hamsi, an Algerian born artist, and Hassan Massoudy, the famous Iraqi calligrapher living in Paris, displayed their work at the European Parliament.

Decoration of the Willy Brandt Building with Photographs on Intercultural Dialogue

The European Commissions Directorate General Communication took the initiative to decorate the outside of Parliaments Willy Brandt Building which faces Rue de Trves and the Place du Luxembourg. The large-format photographs used in this project provided examples of how the European Parliament is engaging in intercultural dialogue within the European Union and also in third countries. During the Year, two seminars took place: Dialogue between Religions, organised by the European Women of Faith Network (EWFN) and Intercultural Dialogue and the Importance of Regional Cooperation for Developing a Civil Society in the 21st Century in South East Europe. Other Parliament initiatives in the framework of the European Year 2008 were the Committee on Womens Rights and Gender Equalitys celebration of International Womens Day, the Parliament also hosted the International Day of African Youth (I-DAY). The latter event received the High Patronage of President of the Parliament Mr Hans-Gert Pttering and was chaired by Vice-President Ms Luisa Morgantini.

Musicians performing during Arab Week

The African Weeks guest of honour was Malian photographer Malik Sidib. A selection of his works were displayed as large prints adorning the Parliament building and facing the Place du Luxembourg. Inside the Parliament, a series of pictures taken by Malik Sidib traced the evolution of Malian society since the 1960s. The South African sculptor Andries Botha, whose work focuses on the mythology and symbolism of the elephant as seen by Westerners, displayed one of his giant sculptures at the entrance to the Paul-Henri Spaak building. In cooperation with the Ixelles Commune, the artists Dobet Gnahor (Cte dIvoire), Bonga (Angola) and Bai Kamara Jr. (Sierra Leone) staged a concert on Place Fernand Cocq.

Arab Week at the European Parliament 37 November

During the Week, the Interparliamentary Delegations, the European Parliaments Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, and internal policy committees placed a special focus on Arab issues in their agendas. The various meetings and events of the Week provided opportunities for dialogues and exchanges with the aim of creating synergies between culture and politics. On 4 November, the European Parliaments Oce for the Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy held a special programme for the visit of Adnan Omran, Secretary General of the Arab Transitional Parliament, and Dr. Abdelaziz Hassan, Member of the Arab Transitional Parliament. The political element of the Arab Week was accompanied by a cultural programme focusing on Arab countries and societies.

Arab Week at the European Parliament

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Local group, Lilunga (left) and Dobet Gnahor (right) performing at the celebratory concert of the European Year in the Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland

The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in EC Delegations

Tanzania: Pamoja na tofauti zetu tuu wamoja Together in Diversity
In Tanzania, a special song was produced by the Tanzania House of Talent and performed for the rst time in Dar es Salaam on Europe Day, 9 March 2008. It was subsequently presented in a series of school visits to raise awareness of the partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Tanzania. On 28 May, the prize ceremony was held in cooperation with Croatian Radio and Television. The event took place in the EU Info Centre in Zagreb and was attended by the schools representatives and the representatives of Member States Embassies involved in the project. Two schools shared rst prize: Donja Stubica Elementary School (in collaboration with EB 3, Maria Manuela SA School from Portugal) for their project Easter in Northern Croatia and Portugal, and Braa Radi Elementary School from Klotar Ivani (in collaboration with Juraj Dalmatinac Elementary School from Krko, Slovenia) for their project Nuclear Power Plants, Sustainable Energy Issue.

Croatia: Connecting Schools

In February 2008, the Delegation of the European Commission to the Republic of Croatia organised a contest for children and teenagers and thereby connected Croatian schools to other schools in Europe: Three children and their mentors all had to nd a partner school or partner students in Europe, establish a dialogue and create a project underlining the similarities and dierences in their societies. They presented their projects using their preferred means such as, posters, web pages, lms or photographs.

Egypt: Gastronomy in Alexandria

Many of the foreign communities that once formed the cosmopolitan population in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, have now emigrated, making it more dicult to gauge the achievements of interculturalism. Using food as a vehicle for introducing the diverse and vibrant cultures of the Mediterranean, this project encouraged Alexandrians

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and Mediterranean communities to engage in a dialogue with one another, whilst being able to see and read about the history of each others food and have the opportunity to contribute directly to the project. The Alexandria Mediterranean Research Centre (AlexMed) initiated the project Gastronomy in Alexandria: A Cosmopolitan Flavour in the Mediterranean, which continued for twelve months and had ve primary objectives ranging from the promotion of intercultural and diverse gastronomy in Alexandria to highlighting the benets of coexistence and encouraging intercultural dialogue and exchange. The project focused on three activities: The two-day open air food fair in the gardens of the Villa Antonia encouraged people from dierent Alexandrian communities to present their cuisine and share and exchange dishes, ingredients and recipes with fellow Alexandrians and restaurants. As a result of interviews with representatives from each community, a cookbook was designed exploring the various communities in Alexandria through their cuisine. In addition to the book, the information was displayed on a website which contained a discussion board. The event was a great success, and the organisers aim to make the food festival regular xture in Alexandrias annual calendar.

Trams in Zagreb and Osijek promoting the European Year

Swaziland: An Evening for Intercultural Dialogue

The EC Delegation to the Kingdom of Swaziland organised an event to celebrate the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 and to raise awareness of the topic in Swaziland. The event took place on the 7 June 2008 in the House on Fire, a concert venue in the Ezulwini Valley in the form of a reception for senior government ocials, senators and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as representatives of local cultural life and of the main ethnic and religious groups in Swaziland. French Ambassador to Mozambique, H.E. Thierry Viteau, representing the EU Presidency in Swaziland on behalf of Slovenia, addressed the guests. He mentioned that preserving cultural identities revives and re-energizes them, and also achieves mutual enrichment, avoiding segregation and cultural entrenchment. The Charg dAaires of the EC Delegation, Mr Arno Schaefer, informed those present of the main objectives of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The speeches were followed by a concert by Dobet Gnahor which was open to the general public. Although the singer was born in Ivory Coast, she currently resides in France, works in a multicultural band, and sings in eight dierent African and European languages. The event was a great success, receiving broad coverage in the local media.

Food festival in Alexandria

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Turkey: Flamenco, Short Stories and a Conference

Flamenco Dance Shows Within the scope of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, the world-renowned Spanish Flamenco dancer David Prez performed Flamenco dance shows throughout Turkey. To illustrate the EU-Turkey intercultural dialogue, the MaviSiyah Group, which uses Turkish musical instruments to perform amenco music, joined Prez for the tour. Story Writing Competition on EU Values The network of EU Information Relays held the second Story Writing Competition on EU Values to convey the fundamental values of the EU, i.e. freedom, equality, security, peace, solidarity and unity. Turkish High school students were invited to participate and to attend informal meetings under the banner Story Seminars from Authors where they received training from famous Turkish authors. Harun akr was the winner of the competition with his story European Union and Peace.

Poster for the tour of amenco dancer David Prez in Turkey

Conference on the Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue through Education and Training The main objective of the conference was to raise awareness of this issue amongst the general public and relevant stakeholders. The conference has been jointly organised by the Turkish National Agency (Centre for EU Education and Youth Programmes) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The outcomes of the conference will be published as a book, making a concrete contribution to the literature on the theme of intercultural dialogue and education. The EU and Turkey: From Perceptions to Reality At the 16th Annual EU-Turkey Conference of Journalists in Istanbul on 1011 March 2008, prominent journalists from Turkey and the EU discussed the gap between perceptions and reality in EU-Turkey relations.

Uganda: Second Europe-Uganda Village

The EC Delegation cooperated with various cultural institutions and the Ugandan Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social aairs to organise the second Europe-Uganda Village. In this family event featuring cultural, business and sports villages as well as an entertainment programme for children, Ugandan cultural institutions and EU Member States were represented on various stands and with activities related to the theme of intercultural dialogue. The key message was that intercultural exchange contributes to peace-building, mutual understanding and development. In this context the rst National Cultural Dialogue Seminar was held in Lira on the theme Traditional Cultural Institutions in Peace Building, Social Justice and Development in Uganda. The seminar aimed to create dynamic partnerships and collaborations that can form the basis for future interactions and development.
Poster for Story Writing Competition on EU values, Turkey

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Useful Weblinks
European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture European Parliament www.europarl.europa.eu European Social and Economic Committee http://eesc.europa.eu/index_en.asp Committee of the Regions http://cor.europa.eu Council of Europe www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural Platform for Intercultural Europe www.intercultural-europe.org Anna Lindh Foundation www.euromedalex.org European Festivals Association www.efa-aef.eu NATIONAL COORDINATING BODIES OF THE YEAR Austria: Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture www.bmukk.gv.at Belgium: French-speaking Community of Belgium (Ministre de la Communaut franaise) www.cfwb.be Flemish Community of Belgium Departement Cultuur, Jeugd, Sport en Media www.cjsm.vlaanderen.be German-speaking Community of Belgium (Ministerium der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft) www.dgov.be Bulgaria: Ministry of Culture www.mc.government.bg Cyprus: Ministry of Education and Culture www.moec.gov.cy Czech Republic: Arts Institute www.institutumeni.cz Denmark: CIRIUS - an authority within the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation www.ciriusonline.dk Estonia: Open Estonia Foundation www.oef.org.ee Finland: The Finnish National Gallery, Community relations and development www.fng. France: Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication/ Dlgation au Dveloppement et aux Aaires Internationales www.culture.gouv.fr Germany: German Ministry for Family Aairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth www.bmfsfj.de

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Useful Weblinks
Greece: Hellenic Ministry of Culture/ Directorate of European Union www.culture.gr Hungary: KultrPont Iroda - Cultural Contact Point of Hungary www.kulturpont.hu Ireland: National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) www.nccri.ie Italy: Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit Culturali www.beniculturali.it Latvia: Secretariat of the Special Assignment Minister for Society Integration Aairs www.integracija.gov.lv Lithuania: Ministry of Culture - International Cultural Programmes Center www.durys.org Luxemburg: Ministry of Culture www.mcesr.etat.lu Malta: St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity www.jcav.org Netherlands: SICA Foundation www.sica.nl Poland: National Center for Culture www.nck.pl Portugal: ACIDI - Alto Comissariado para a Imigrao e Dilogo Intercultural, IP www.acidi.gov.pt Romania: Consultancy Centre for European Cultural Programmes (CCECP) www.eurocult.ro Slovakia: Ministry of Culture www.culture.gov.sk Slovenia: Ministry of Culture www.gov.si Spain: Ministry of Culture www.dgcc.mcu.es Sweden: Ministry of Culture www.culture.ministry.se United Kingdom: EUCLID, the Cultural Contact Point for the UK www.euclid.info FLAGSHIP PROJECTS Diversidad! Promoting Dialogue and Exchange through European Urban Culture www.emo.org, www.myspace.com/diversidadexperience Alter Ego www.alterego-europe.eu Cultures from around the Block: Creating a European Network for Intercultural Community Activities www.mkc.cz Tatapume - Intercultural Dialogue Radio Campaign www.tatapume.org, www.radiopopolare.it iyouwe SHARE THE WORLD www.menuhin-foundation.com www.iyouwesharetheworld.eu Meeting the Other: Borders, Identity and Cultures in Europe www.babelmedfestival.net, www.babelmed.net StrangerFestival www.strangerfestival.com

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European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2009 ISBN 978-92-79-12466-2 2009 76 pp. 25 x 25 cm

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