MINELRES: Online Consultation on Intercultural Dialogue

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Original sender: Guillermo Ruiz <guillermo.ruiz@erionet.org>


Online Consultation on Intercultural Dialogue 

The European Roma Information Office (ERIO) is member of the Steering
Group of the Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue � Rainbow
Platform. The Rainbow Platform is coordinated by the European Forum for
the Arts and Heritage (EFAH) and aims at bringing together civil society
actors in order to ensure that their voice will be heard in the design,
implementation and follow up of the activities of the 2008 � European
Year for the Intercultural Dialogue. ERIO�s role in this Platform,
specifically in the Steering Committee, is to ensure that Roma issues
are properly addressed and that Roma communities are appropriately
represented in the activities of the EYID 2008 at the EU and national
level.

The Rainbow Platform has successfully established itself in the civil
society landscape over the past year. We now have a mailing list of over
200 organisations, a small committed steering group and are an
interlocutor for the European Commission - which regards the Rainbow
Platform as a prototype for the �structured dialogue� between the EU
institutions and civil society. Along this line of thinking, it has
launched a call for the setting up two more platforms on connected
themes.
 
The first year of the Platform�s work was concluded with the Rainbow
Paper:�Practice Makes Perfect. A Learning Framework for Intercultural
Dialogue� that we presented at the opening of the European Year of
Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Since then, many efforts have been put into
sharpening the Platform�s content delivery, further mobilisation, and
fundraising. We are happy to be able to announce that the Platform is
now financially viable until the end of this year. A consortium of six
foundations, under the NEF (Network of European Foundations for
Innovative Cooperation) umbrella, has agreed to further support the
initiative in 2008. 
 
Content-wise, the focus of the Platform has been re-centred on devising
practical recommendations to improve policy for intercultural dialogue
at EU level and the level of civil society itself:

An action oriented RAINBOW PAPER II has been launched for ON-LINE
CONSULTATION on the LabforCulture web site! We invite you to
participate!
Go to: http://rainbowplatform.labforculture.org 

Rainbow Paper II builds on the cross-sectoral views on intercultural
dialogue of the first paper but now offers concrete policy
recommendations.
 
Rainbow Paper II will be on-line for comments and wiki-editing until
13th June.
The final opportunity to input will be the Platform Plenary on the 4th
June in Brussels. 
 
Rainbow Paper II will serve as a tool for civil society organisations to
commit to the action proposals and to support the political
recommendations. The paper and the list of supporting organisations will
be presented at the closing event of the European Year of Intercultural
Dialogue under the French EU Presidency on 17-19 November in Paris. 


Guillermo Ruiz
Policy Officer
European Roma Information Office (ERIO)
Avenue Edouard Lacomble 17
1040 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 7333 462
Fax:     +32 2 7333 875
www.erionet.org

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