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Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures

Welcome to the web site of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, Cyprus National Network. Our network is building on the stimuli provided by the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, Alexandria (ALF) and strives to facilitate genuine cooperation between independent operators across the Eurpean Union and the Mediterranean region in the broad fields of youth and culture, including the arts, education and media.

As per the remit of the Foundation, the Cyprus national network makes every effort to reflect the fact that:

Dialogue between Cultures is essentially a dialogue between human beings, not between anonymous cultural entities. Present and future generations must, therefore, be given the instruments for dialogue. In the Euro-Mediterranean region, they need to be provided the opportunity to learn at least one foreign language, preferably more, and to acquire knowledge about all religions and cultural traditions that have shaped this region as crossroads of civilisations.

The Foundation itself building on this, aims to close the gap between the Middle East and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region with the European Union. Indeed, this area is of strategic importance to the European Union for since this partnership was born at the Lisbon Conference of 1995 (see: Barcelona Process), it has the objective of enhancing regional cooperation in economic, social, and cultural areas between member states of the European Union and countries of the Mediterranean basin. The main purpose of the ALF is therefore to make this region an area of peace, security and social welfare.

The intercultural dialogue the foundation strives to promote and establish is aimed at establishing awareness and understanding through its emphasis on human development, on the development of partnerships and the establishment of a forum for social and cultural issues. By offering these opportunities, and by building this close cooperation and a broad international exchange, the ALF aims to contribute to the respect for cultural diversity.

Above all the ALF works in an innovative manner building on its strength of national networks. As a network of networks, the foundation is responsible for the coordination of different national initiatives within the Euro-Mediterranean region by mediating between contacts and providing the impetus and the forum through its work to develop understanding and awareness. As a regional umbrella linking ultimately people together it promotes intellectual relations through education, mobility, understanding and social stability. Indeed it strongly emphasizes the importance of a dialogue that is not limited to nations, languages and religions, but to an actual exchange between individuals.

Cyprus geographically, at historical cross-roads, has a critical role to play. The organizations and institutions that make up the Cyprus national network put in practice at the local national level the emphasis on people and dialogue in dealing with local issues but, at the same time, by coming together clearly reflect their resolve to establish and further the dialogue between human beings in the region.

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