Cultural production is a field where images and perceptions are shaped and reshaped through the impact of globalisation, causing contradictory consequences for a better understanding and coexistence in the region. On one side, the worldwide circulation of cultural products may have a positive impact in terms of mutual knowledge and cultural cross-fertilisation. On the other side, the cultural exchange among European and Southern countries of the Euro-Med region is limited and biased by the unequal capacity of the cultural industry of the two shores of the Mediterranean, the lack of translations and the power of the North-American cultural business.

Cultural bridges must be built to ensure that Music, Cinema, Literature and Arts become a tool of better knowledge and cultural dialogue. This was one of the main conclusion of the Euro-Med Ministerial Meeting of Culture which took place in Athens (May 2008) and produced a Declaration which defines a comprehensive cultural approach for the European cultural policy in the region, and underlines the role of the Anna Lindh Foundation as the main tool for cultural dialogue in the area. In accordance with this new framework, one of the most important tasks of the Foundation in the cultural field will be to coordinate its action with the ad hoc Euro-Med Expert Group which will be established by the Euro-Med Partnership, as decided at the Marseille Ministerial Meeting (November 2008), with the purpose of drawing a cultural regional strategy.

The Foundation is facing a double defy: On the one hand, assessing the mechanisms of cultural production, and tracking its routes of dissemination would help to understand the sources of misperceptions; On the other hand, encouraging mutual dissemination of cultural production and its translation would help to open windows into other societies and heritages.

Contemporary visual or performing arts, for example, which show contradictions and new trends within a society, have often limited circulation beyond national borders, or are even discouraged, and therefore require specific encouragement. The actions of the Foundation in the field of cultural production will contribute in creating a network of “Trans-Cultural Leaders” being able to support cultural production with a multi- and inter- cultural approach.