Diversity / Minorities

In anticipation of the appointments of European Council President and Foreign Policy chief, a lot of noise was made about gender balance. Member states were also urged by activists, NGOs, as well as Commission President Barrosso to consider nominating female candidates to the Commission. The promotion of a gender balanced Commission is a cause supported by at least 2 360 facebook users, and 888 petition signers on official website, www.genderbalancedcommission.eu, though it’s reasonable to expect some overlap in members. The result? The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is a certain Catherine Ashton, and nine women have been nominated to the new Commission (the same number as were in the last Commission). While ideally we would live in a world where underpaid and overlooked women is not the norm, the debate on positive discrimination and gender quotas is again on the table. On the one hand, a visible gender equality within the European institutions has positive effects both for gender issues and for the image of Europe. On the other, appointing underqualified women does not further women’s rights. Rather, it risks proving sexist people right. The female appointees may however well be qualified, and for their sake and the sake of gender equality, we certainly hope they are.

Photo: Flickr, DogFromSPACE

The 2008 European cultural year has been all about intercultural dialogue. The European Union as a unique interplay of different cultures, languages, religions and traditions has been the focal centre for discovering the other throughout 2008. The European Commission supported different European, national and thematic projects with a budget nearing 2,4 million euros. It focused on migration and integration issues, education and youth projects, and many others. More than 300 projects applied. The resonance of this community project was very positive at the end of the year. Without a doubt, it has contributed to raise awareness on the wealth of European diversity. However, it cannot dissimulate that most European citizens remain sceptical towards the EU and only few are in touch with European projects. 2009 will focus on the themes of creativity and innovation.

Information about the different projects 2008 can be found under: European Year of the Intercultural Dialogue

Photo: www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu

The international conference on interreligious dialogue held Wednesday 16 July in Madrid is good news in that it brought together the high representatives of the three Book religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – to jointly proclaim their will towards dialogue and mutual comprehension. The conference was the intitiave of King Abdallah II of Saudi Arabia, a country embodying the most severe Islamic doctrine, Wahhabism. This paradox explains itself by Abdallah’s will to change the kingdom’s image, tainted by the 2001 terrorist attacks of which the majority of culprits were Saudi. At the end of the Madrid Conference, participants called for the organisation of a special session of the United Nations General Assembly dedicated to interreligious dialogue. At a time when relations between religions are too often the pretext for tension and nearly violence, such an initiative deserves recognition.