ANNA LINDT FOUNDATION

The Political Studies Association of Ireland has joined the Anna Lindt Foundation. Dr. Francesco Cavatorta of Dublin City University is the Head of the Irish national network of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue Between Cultures. Members with questions about the Foundation can contact him at Francesco.cavatorta@dcu.ie.

The European-Mediterranean Partnership was launched at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Ministers in Barcelona in November 1995. The partnership has as its goal the strengthening of a wide framework of political, economic and social relations between the member states of the European Union and partners of the southern Mediterranean. Chapter III of the Barcelona Process has the objective of "the rapprochement between peoples through a social, cultural and human partnership aimed at encouraging understanding between cultures and exchanges between civil societies."

EuroMed Foreign Ministers agreed in Naples in December, 2003 on the establishment of a Foundation "to promote cultural, educational and people to people exchanges." The Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF), named in honour of the murdered Swedish Foreign Minister, was formally launched on 19-20 April 2005 and is based at the new Library and at the Swedish Institute in Alexandria, Egypt. The task of the ALF is to promote dialogue between the cultures of the Euro-Mediterranean region--including its three main religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism--and to contribute to the visibility of the Barcelona Process through intellectual, cultural, and civil society exchanges. The Foundation has an initial three-year budget of approximately €11 million.

For more detailed information regarding the opportunities offered to PSAI members through the Association's membership of the Foundation, please see the Anna Lindt Foundation's website.