The European Union's Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, Štefan Füle, convened yesterday a meeting in Brussels with a delegation of the Anna Lindh Foundation which was headed by the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Ambassador Veronika Stabej, and composed of representatives of the ALF Management, Heads of Network and Board. The meeting took place in the absence of the Foundation's President, André Azoulay, who had to stay in Rabat due to the death of the Moroccan Princess Lalla Aisha.

Taking place in the wake of the historical changes in the Arab region, the purpose of the meeting was to exchange views on how the ALF could play an important role in the framework of the EU's new policy framework in support of democratic transitions in the southern neighborhood.

The meeting in Brussels was also an occasion to prepare the ALF's ‘High-Level Reunion on Intercultural Dialogue’ which will bring together in November 2011 for the first time members of the original founding fathers of the Foundation (2003's 'Groupe des Sages') with representatives of the ALF's Advisory Council, Heads of Networks and strategic partners to reassess the intercultural dialogue agenda in the new regional context.

In addition to staff from the ALF headquarters and the ALF Head of Civil Society Network in Belgium, the delegation in Brussels included the Chair of the ALF Board of Governors, Ambassador Veronika Stabej, and the Board representatives from the EU member states of Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden.