The first decade of the 21^st century has witnessed an apparent growth in the gap of mutual perceptions between people across the two shores of the Mediterranean, as well as the impact of economic crisis and conflict on cross-cultural relations.

In this context, and in order to better understand the challenges of human and cultural relations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, the Anna Lindh Foundation has assumed the role to monitor and analyse the evolution of intercultural trends and values, and to publish the output in the form of a report every three years.

The Anna Lindh Report 2010

The first Anna Lindh Report, entitled ‘EuroMed Intercultural Trends 2010’ was launched during an international launch event in Brussels on Wednesday 15th September. Stefan Füle, the European Union’s Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, and André Azoulay, President of the Anna Lindh Foundation, opened the event, which included a debate involving intercultural experts and media representatives.

It is based on the very first public opinion poll on intercultural trends and values, carried out between August and September 2009 ,with 13,000 people from 13 countries in Europe and the southern and eastern Mediterraneanfrom across the two shores of the Mediterranean(Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey and the UK).

26 specific articles on intercultural issues which draw on the Opinion Poll results and 39 good practices and case-studies on intercultural dialogue appear in the Report that contains 170 pages and is divided in four main parts: ‘Inside the Opinion Poll’ (including quantitative analysis by Gallup); ‘Expert Analysis and Good Practices’ (including articles by experts); ‘Media Thematic Focus’ (including national case-studies by media experts) and ‘Conclusions’ (including proposals for action).

Main Themes

With analysis and proposals for the intercultural dialogue agenda and guidelines for intercultural action at the local and international level from 41 intercultural experts in over 40 countries of the Region, the Report addresses key issues in the public debate including 'Islam, the West and Modernity', 'The Demographic Factor of Cultural Relations', 'Media and Intercultural Perceptions', 'Values in Raising Children in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean', 'New Ways of Understanding Human Mobility', 'Translation as a Tool for Dialogue' and 'The religious factor in intercultural relations'. The thematic focus of this first edition of the Report is the role of Media in promoting cultural diversity.