European Commission launched the campaign for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008

On 4 December 2007, the European Commission launched the communication campaign for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

Commenting on this event, The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Training and Youth Ján Figel’ said that the initiative „gives us a valuable opportunity to explore ways to improve our intercultural dialogue, and our intercultural relations”. „That is why we have chosen the slogan ‘Together in diversity’ for the Year”, he added.

The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 aims to contribute to mutual understanding and better living together. It will explore the benefits of cultural diversity and seek to foster a sense of European belonging.

The campaign website www.dialogue2008.eu, which has been developed together with civil society organizations, aims to promote a joint European space for intercultural dialogue. Already prior to the launch, it hosts more than 500 profiles of individuals and organisations working within the field of intercultural dialogue.

On the eve of the campaign launch, Eurobarometer made a special Flash Survey on attitudes of EU citizens to intercultural dialogue and intercultural relations.

According to the study, almost three quarters of EU citizens (72%) believe that people with a different background (ethnic, religious or national) enrich the cultural life of their country. Irish and the Luxembourgish respondents agreed most that the presence of people from various backgrounds enriched the cultural life of their nation; followed by the French; the German and the Finnish. Th e highest levels of disagreement with this assumption were found in Malta, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania. However, even in those countries, more than half of the citizens think that people with different cultural backgrounds (ranging from 52% to 57%) do bring benefits to everyday life.

Two-thirds (65%) of respondents in the 27 EU Member States were able to recall interaction with at least one person of a different religion, ethnic background or nationality than their own in the seven days prior to being questioned. The highest ratios of citizens having contacts were reported from Luxembourg (82%), Ireland (77%), UK (76%) and Austria (75%). Out of the 27 Member States, there were only four countries where less than the half of the citizens reported such interaction with people from different cultures (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Estonia).

A remarkably high number of EU citizens (83%) value the benefits of intercultural contacts.< /p>

Finally, two-thirds of the EU-27 citizens have some interest in events to be held under the initiative European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

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