Intercultural dialogue and the EU
The Year will feature a small number of flagship projects on a European level, as well as EU support for a national project in each Member State, and a Partner programme aimed at mobilizing civil society. The active involvement of civil society will be essential in highlighting good practices and identifying needs in intercultural dialogue. Well-known ambassadors have also been appointed to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of intercultural dialogue.
Intercultural dialogue and Slovenia
Slovenia understands intercultural dialogue as a process of encouraging an open and complex cultural environment for creativity. It is aware of the opportunity that it has a EU President in the first half of 2008, since it can contribute to intercultural dialogue within the EU and in the world, which is conceived on a common but diverse heritage and appears through the various ways of life of its citizens and all who temporarily or permanently live in the EU. Slovenia also sees opportunities for linkage among other things in cooperation with France, who holds the presidency in the second half of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
In Slovenia, the coordinator of the Year is the Ministry of Culture, assisted by the National Coordination Body for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, trans-sectoral working group, appointed by the Minister of Culture. The National Coordination Body with the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Sport, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Office of the RS for Youth, Government Office for European Affairs and Government Communication Office, has prepared a national strategy for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, a strategic document for the implementation of the Decision in Slovenia.