Ministerial meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations Group of Friends
Istanbul Forum, 6 April 2009

Based on the common commitment to the principles of democracy, respect for
human rights and the rule of law, the European Union and the Alliance of
Civilisations agreed last Autumn on a cooperation framework covering a
number of areas: promotion of human rights and political reform; media and
access to information; intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity, including
exchanges and promotion of people-to-people contacts; immigration and
integration; as well as prevention of polarisation and radicalisation. It is in this
context that the two partners, along with the Anna Lindh Foundation for the
Dialogue between Cultures, are launching at this Istanbul Forum a joint Rapid
Reaction Media Mechanism for the Euro-Mediterranean region, to be applied in
times of cultural tension and crises.

Rethinking Education as a critical key for fostering respect and understanding

Over the past fifty years Europe has thrived thanks to its diversity and to our
unwavering commitment to dialogue. Europe’s leaders and institutions will
always need to show their commitment to the emergence of a culture of dialogue
and tolerance. Because freedoms, democracy, rule of law, that may be common
in Europe, are not to be taken for granted. They are result of much sacrifice and
struggle. They call for continuous civic engagement and responsibility. The
achievements of the European project over the past half century prove that we
can live together—and thrive—not in spite of our diversity, but because of it.
The latest tangible sign of this commitment was the European Year of
Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

Europe does not have a better narrative for the 21st Century than unity in
diversity. Both parts are important. One alone is not enough. There have been
many attempts, quests for unity without respect for diversity, but also quests for
diversity without unity, without cohesion – both positions do not work. Our
challenge is to transcend the multicultural mode that was developed in our
societies, where communities simply co-exist, next to each other in their own
space and without interacting. What we need is a step towards an intercultural
approach. “Inter” means a relationship between two or more in dialogue, in
communication, in interest, in respect and of course means also to share
responsibility. Once there is awareness both of difference and of belonging to
society, then the natural consequence is shared responsibility, to solve problems
and to build better prospects. This needs determination and commitment. One of
the indispensable contributions in order to live together, not only to exist
together in diversity, is education. Education unites! Through education we can
learn to combine identity and openness, traditions and modernity. Thus
intercultural education, including developing the ability to deal with diversity of
traditions and religions, has a fundamental role in promoting active citizenship.

The fundamental role of education is very clear. Education is about the
fulfilment of personality. We are born as persons but we become personalities,
hopefully. We are born as human beings but we become citizens. And on the
road towards mature citizenship, and a mature personality, there is a need for
education, learning and training. Access to and quality of education should be
clear objectives of our co-operation. Jan Amos Komenský said that school
should be a workshop of humanity. It means not only preparation for a job, but
for the role of being a fully developed human being.

Intercultural skills and competences, knowledge and ability in relation to
diversity are basic needs in diverse societies, and the more education we provide
in this field, the better we equip our young people for personal responsibility.
Such education also enriches our understanding of self. It was Paul Ricœur, the
French philosopher and theologian, who said: “La chemin le plus court de moi à
moi, c’est l’autre”. We find our own understanding of self through relationships
and in dialogue with others. So, we ask what the differences are and what are the
commonalities?

The world and Europe are changing – creating new opportunities and new
challenges. In this changing environment young people are more equipped with
energy and enthusiasm for the future, but also many of them are marginalized.
Many of them are simply more vulnerable because of realities like
unemployment, which is for youth twice as high as the overall unemployment
rates. We have in the EU of today close to 15% early drop outs from school.
That is close to six million young people who leave school early. You can
imagine, for six million annually, what that means in terms of further
consequences in life, further problems in their individual or family or
community lives. Moreover, close to 20% of 15-year olds achieve very low
results in reading literacy. Yet this is one of the first competencies required to
participate further in education and lifelong learning. These are exclamation
marks for our education and training systems.

There are many young people with few opportunities, who are socially
marginalized. There are many causes of exclusion: poverty, difficult family
context, physical and mental health problems, disabilities, life in disadvantaged
urban or rural areas, ethnic background, etc.
What is the EU response? We need to focus on youth and relate policies to
young people. One of the contributions is to get cultural aspects more into the
domain of cooperation. What we need is more intercultural respect, dialogue,
skills and competencies taught in schools so that young people are better
prepared to live in diverse communities.

Ignorance breeds intolerance, and then we face further problems. We need to
achieve a long-term strategy, a long-term orientation towards an intercultural
approach. An important dimension of that strategy involves support for mobility.
Mobility becomes a part of the preparation for career, for social inclusion and
for European integration. Just last year we supported more than 300 000 young
students and trainees and more than 110 000 teachers participating in mobility
programmes like Lifelong Learning, Tempus and Comenius.

On education policy, the Commission has in recent years put forward several
very important proposals leading, for example, to a common position by the 27
EU Ministers of Education on equity and efficiency in our education and
training systems: not as a kind of contradiction or trade-off but as a dual
objective. Efficiency and equity are very important because we have to look
both at how we spend money and also how we ensure access for all. A dual
objective, because if only one is promoted, it leads to egalitarian results or if
only the quality is followed, it leads rather to an elitist approach. Both, access
for all and quality in education, as a shared objective are needed!

The 27 have also adopted and approved key competencies for lifelong learning.
These start with mother tongue literacy, knowledge of foreign languages, MSTs
(mathematics, science, and technology) and digital literacy (to be able to use
new technologies and not excluding from modern, fast communication). Of
course, to command technology is not enough. It was Martin Heidegger who
said “Technology has overcome all distances but didn’t bring any closeness”.
For closeness we need other skills, such as learning to learn, initiative-taking,
interpersonal, societal and social, intercultural competencies. These should
become part of further curricular reforms in our schools and especially in
relation to migrants’ children.

School is a key place for integrating young people. Last year I proposed a
communication on improving competencies for 21st century, an agenda for
European cooperation on schools. It should lead to a more central role,
recognition and support for schools in our societies because the value of schools
is much higher than usually recognised.

We should promote youth policies together with young people. Not for them
only, but with them. This is a realistic and mature condition for implementation.
In European policies the youth aspects are getting a higher profile. It is not a
total and definite answer, but it is a beginning of a more coherent approach. We
need to see youth policy as a space of responsibility for many actors.

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The European Commission would like to offer brief comments on two of the
other topics the High Representative put on the agenda of this brainstorming
meeting of the Group of Friends.

Addressing extremism and radicalisation

Violence carried out by small cells of radical militants often manages to catch
the attention of public opinion. They claim to act in the name of a certain
religion, but in the end their motivation is not religious but political. We need to
keep in mind that the large majority of religious people remain in fact
committed to peace and discreetly contribute, at grassroots’ level, for the
common good of their local communities.

The European Union is actively involved in addressing factors which can be
conducive to radicalisation into violence. The priorities of its strategy are to
disrupt the activities of networks and individuals who draw people into
terrorism; to ensure that voices of mainstream opinion prevail over those of
extremism and to promote – yet more vigorously – security, justice, democracy
and opportunity for all.

The European Commission has invested time and resources in examining the
radicalisation process, its trends, manifestations and dynamics in Europe. In
particular, it has funded four comparative studies (1) on the following issues which,
although they focus on the internal situation of the EU, may also be of wider
interest: factors that may trigger or affect violent radicalisation processes,
particularly among youth; beliefs, ideologies and narrative of violent radicals;
methods through which violent radicals mobilise support for terrorism and find
new recruits; best practices which can be identified in the way how government
authorities and civil society cooperate to address violent radicalisation.
Moreover, the EU pursues wide-reaching policies to fight discrimination and
xenophobia, promote integration and social cohesion which are also believed to
have a positive “spill-over” effect on preventing radicalisation into violence.

Fostering civil society in building inclusive societies

The European Commission firmly believes that civil society has an essential role
to play in promoting intercultural understanding and building bridges between
communities and people. This fundamental principle guides its many actions
and policies, both at internal level and in its relations with its partners.

For instance, further to a Commission proposal, 2008 was declared European
Year of Intercultural Dialogue, precisely with the purpose of encouraging the
mobilisation of civil society at European, national and local level.

2008 was also the “Euro-Mediterranean Year of Dialogue between Cultures”,
celebrated in particular with an ambitious project entitled “1001 actions for
dialogue” by the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, an
independent organisation shared and resourced by the forty-three countries of
the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The main aim of the campaign was, in this
case as well, to mobilize civil society groups across the region to unite in a
collective action for dialogue and to engage the wider public and opinion
makers on the importance of intercultural dialogue in challenging conflict and
discrimination in the region. More generally, the Anna Lindh Foundation works
through national networks in the Euromed partner countries, in which civil
society plays a key role. Indeed the networks are made up of public institutions,
local authorities, but also hundreds of non-governmental organisations,
universities, associations, non-profit foundations and private companies,
spanning a wide range of fields: cultural and artistic activities, youth and
education, democracy and community development, human rights, migration
issues, sustainable development, gender, heritage, media and religion.

Moreover, the Euromed Non-Governmental Platform was established in
February 2003 as an inclusive and open-ended group of active civil society
networks and organizations, with the purpose, inter alia, of strengthening the
role of civil society in the Euromed Partnership and establishing a permanent
interface between actors from Euromed civil society and the public authorities.
The Platform gathers regional, sub-regional, national and local networks and
organisations from the Euromed region, representing a diverse range of civil
society interests. It is the main organiser of the Civil Society Fora held prior the
Euromed Foreign Affairs meetings. The European Commission is supporting the
Platform’s activities.

In conclusion, it should be stressed that open societies are central to an effective
intercultural dialogue. The multitude of activities are undertaken at the national,
regional, cross-regional and international level, including by this Alliance, can
fully achieve their objective only when there is effective freedom of expression
and information.

The Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilisations has been steadily growing
as there are widespread expectations about the special role it can play in
fostering intercultural understanding. To be true to this calling, the Alliance of
Civilisations must have the courage to address some of the issues that divide its
Friends, to serve as a platform for more informed and dispassionate discussions.
Only frank dialogues can ultimately “win minds and hearts”.

1 Available at
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/terrorism/prevention/fsj_terrorism_prevention_prevent_en.htm.