04.12.2007 - 18:54 CET | By Teresa Küchler
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - To foster better understanding and communication
between the diverse crowd that makes up European citizens, Brussels has
launched a media campaign about its forthcoming "Year of intercultural
Dialogue."
The initiative has a budget of €10 million, plus money from EU capitals,
and will be celebrated throughout the whole of 2008.
It includes seven flagship multi-European projects and 27 national
projects involving culture, education, youth, sport and citizenship.
It will seek to "explore the benefits of cultural diversity" and "foster
a sense of European belonging", according to the programme.
EU enlargement, together with greater mobility within the union, new and
old migratory flows and increased trade with the rest of the world have
led to more contact between cultures, religions and beliefs, ethnic
groups and languages in Europe, says the commission
Flanking the EU's culture commissioner, Jan Figel, at the official
launch on Tuesday were seven elected "goodwill ambassadors" for the year.
They included well-known personalities in the field of culture, such as
Brazilian best seller writer Paulo Coelho, Slovak music director Jack
Martin Händler and Serbian eurovision Song Contest winner Marija Serifovic.
According to Mr Coelho, the author of the best-selling novel /The
Alchemist/, "in these difficult moments in which the world is in danger,
culture is the base to establish a dialogue".
He pointed out that the lowest common denominator of all communities in
the world, no matter how isolated, are cultural: music, beauty, or a
notion of God.
Six Brussels debates on culture will be organised during 2008, with each
debate taking a specific sectoral view on intercultural dialogue, such
as media, arts and heritage, the workplace, inter-religious dialogue,
education and youth, migration and integration are on the agenda for the
year.
On the launch day, the European commission also presented a recent
survey showing that three in four EU citizens welcome dialogue with
other cultures.
According to the survey, almost three quarters of EU citizens believe
that people with a different background, be it ethnic, religious or
national, enrich the cultural life of their country.
FULL ARTICLE AT
http://euobserver.com/9/25271/?rk=1
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