Czech network of Anna Lindh Foundation participated on the 15th International Book Fair in Prague. This year was important not only for its jubilee but also for the status of Official Event of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. This was very important factor for us in the decision making process if we will participate or not. Second important factor was the interest of three of our member to participate on this event. Unfortunately they were not able to pay for their own bookstall. We asked the Secretariat of ALF for permission to remove the financial resources within the budget items and we succeeded with this request. Thanks to these financial resources we were able to promote to our members the participation on the Book fair. The request for participation from our members was based on the past experience of one of our member with this activity. Czech-Arab Society considered this participation as very fruitful and they had big success with their books and bulletins.

As part of the literary festival writers from countries of the European Union will be invited to the fair, where they will introduce their work and take part in discussions about life in a united Europe, questions of identity and diversity in European literatures, and recent trends in the literature of Europe. But the Fair has many other themes as:

Cities in 1989 - programmes dedicated to cities which played a key role in the overthrow of communist regimes (Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Sofia, Warsaw)
Imagination and Creativity - exhibitions of books, programmes with author participation, discussions, films, book presentations
Literature and Education - a forum for the presentation of projects in education, campaigns in support of reading and education, the activities of the presses of universities and academic institutions
Cooking with the Book - programme to support an exhibition of cook- and recipe-books; with practical gastronomic samples and the participation of some interesting guests
BookWorld in Film - film adaptations of works of literature - Ponrepo cinema, Atlas, cinema at exhibition grounds
BookWorld on the Stage - in cooperation with theatres throughout the Czech Republic.

We appreciate the opportunity to meet foreign guests and representatives from organizations that could be partners for our members. This Fair is very well known in the Czech Republic and we consider this as a great opportunity to present ALF in general and work of our members. We have to say that we distributed 200ks of our Bulletins that we issued this spring. That give us a prove that we made a big step forward in the propagation of ALF. Our member Arabesque also sold the book they created (mainly children literature and short stories from Arab artists). So this activity brought not only the financial profit but mainly the propagation and visible presence of Anna Lindh Foundation in our country.