Building a real coexistence in Europe
How can European societies meet the challenge of intercultural coexistence? More than 80 NGOs tried to give an answer to this question in the International Seminar “Intercultural Coexistence in Europe: diversity management models”, organized by the NGO Platform of Social Action and co-financed by the EEA Grants.
19.06.2015
Multiculturalism has become one of the main treasures of Europe but also its main challenge. There’s no magic solution to manage properly the growing diversity but more than 80 representatives from Spanish and European NGOs were brought together in the International Seminar “Intercultural Coexistence in Europe: diversity management models”, organized by the NGO Platform of Social Action and co-financed by the EEA Grants, in order to draw the attention to this problem and discuss solutions and experiences to build a real coexistence.
The Seminar addressed three of the main challenges in this field: Roma people, the increasing feminization of migrations and the internal “borders” in our cities.
Conclusions revealed that there is still a lot to be done to achieve a real coexistence and that the laws are not enough, inclusion in society is needed. To accomplish it, NGOs concluded that strengthening political influence; fostering global measures for local actions and in the long-term; focusing on building networks because unity creates strength; and communicating more and better is urgently needed.
During the Seminar several projects within EEA Grants Active Citizenship Programme were presented, such as “Gitanítate y participa”, fighting against anti-Roma attitudes with humour and empathy; “Lorca Free”, free of racism and prejudices; the project “Strengthening Latin American Women Network” to help them to turn a place of residence into a home; “Decides” for equity in the access and development of the sexual and reproductive rights in Spain; Red Juvenil Antirracista which is creating free-racism spaces in Barcelona; or the project of the Coordinadora Valencia de ONG which has achieved to create space for Third Sector claims in Valencia’s politics.
EEA Grants Active Citizenship Programme, operated by the NGO Platform of Social Action, is funded with 4.6 million euros from the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism Office (EEA Grants) and whose objective is strengthening of civil society, social justice and democracy.