EU and Mediterranean countries work together for intercultural dialogue

June 2005 -

In the Discotheque Project, young people from the Euro Mediterranean region collect popular music that is then broadcast to a wide audience via Internet, MP3, CDs and cassettes. The Discotheque Project is one of the on-going projects of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. The inauguration of this foundation was held on 20 April 2005 in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Anna Lindh Foundation is a new cooperative organisation between members of the European Union and ten Mediterranean countries: Morocco, Turkey, Algiers, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.

The objective of this foundation is intercultural dialogue, exchange and cooperation between people in the North and the South. An important element in this is what is known as the 2 + 2 formula: each project requires cooperation from two partners in the North and two partners in the South. The foundation works in the following areas: young people, empowerment of women, education, culture, science, human rights and sustainable development. The foundation’s secretariat is housed in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and The Swedish Institute in Alexandria.

The Anna Lindh Foundation believes that music is the perfect tool for stimulating intercultural dialogue and exchange between young people. The programme consists of concerts with a mixture of European and Arabian music, both contemporary and traditional genres, and workshops for RAI and rap music.

The European Cultural Foundation is the coordinator of future activities in the Netherlands related to the Anna Lindh Foundation.