Euro-Mediterranean Ambassadors endorse strategic guidelines for the Foundation’s next phase (2011-2014) and open a process of debate with the Anna Lindh Networks and partners across the region.    

The Board of Governors of the Anna Lindh Foundation, composed of the senior officials of the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean, met on the 20^th October in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. The purpose of the meeting was to have a strategic debate on the future of the Foundation, with a focus on the preparation of the institution’s programme for ‘Phase III’ of its development, from 2011 to 2014.

The Board of Governors endorsed unanimously the strategic guidelines presented by the Foundation’s Director, Andreu Claret, on behalf of the international headquarters, which aims to respond to the new realities and demands of intercultural dialogue, as well as consolidating long-term programmes in the fields of ‘culture and creativity’, ‘education and intercultural learning’, ‘cities and spaces of citizenship’ and ‘media and public opinion’.

Speaking at the Board meeting in Dubrovnik, the Foundation’s President André Azoulay said: “It is essential to ensure that the Anna Lindh Foundation can fully assume its role as the central instrument for dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean region, ensuring that the Partnership is more than just a large and unbalanced free trade zone, giving it human legitimacy, social justice and acceptable shared rules to face common challenges”.

The proposed programme for Phase III of the Foundation also includes ongoing support to civil society through a Call for Proposals programme, a second ‘Anna Lindh Forum’, and the next edition to the ‘Anna Lindh Report on Euro-Mediterranean Intercultural Trends’, as well as a new mobility fund for young people.

The strategic guidelines and programme priorities have been reviewed and developed through the meeting of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s Advisory Council in Rabat earlier this month, and they will form the basis of discussions at the annual meeting of Heads of National Networks in Brussels at the start of December.