COPEAM took part in the first Conference of the Atelier Culturel Europe - Mediterranean - Gulf
“Dialogue of Peoples and Cultures”, held in Paris (Palais de l’Elysée) from 13th to 15th of September and opened by Mr. Jacques CHIRAC, President of the French Republic.
The meeting has been organised by the French Foreign Affairs Minister and the EUROMED NGOs’
Platform, in cooperation with the Anna Lindh Foundation.
The non-governmental character of this Atelier starts from the assumption that the civil societies are the key-factors of the social, cultural and political development of the Euro-Mediterranean Region.
The meeting, gathering more than 250 participants, has been structured into 6 thematic workshops
focused on memory and history, identity and values, image and word (in which COPEAM has
been invited to take part), social and cultural modernisation, education, religions and societies.
A particular attention has been drawn on education: the key-question was “How can education
contribute to set up conditions of a satisfactory “living together”? Some of the arisen proposals
confirm COPEAM view and suggestions, for example the creation of an exchange and crosstraining
program, similar to “Erasmus” Project - idea already come out from the round tables ofCOPEAM Seville Conference (May 2005) - in the framework of a cooperation between the universities of the Euro-Mediterranean region aimed at opening this kind of exchange to the South Mediterranean students. Another key-subject was the importance of a permanent dialogue between the media and within the media, even by increasing the presence in these organisations and in their news-rooms of professionals and journalists representing cultural minorities.
Something on which COPEAM is investing very much through its training projects, its annual meetings between international all-news channels, and the promotion of the Seville Charter.