The European Parliament passes the “Ward Report”

After the adoption by the Committee on Culture and Education on the 21st of December 2015, it is the European Parliament as a whole which yesterday passed by a large majority (+554, -147, ¤12) the Report on the role of intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity and education in promoting EU fundamental values (Rapporteur: Julie Ward, Socialists & Democrats, UK).
 
The report argues for the European Union to establish the exchange of good practices and promote a new structured dialogue in intercultural and interfaith. It encourages stakeholders to systematize definitions, methods and criteria, while advocating for intercultural and interfaith to be brought to educational, cultural and audio visual fields, as well as integrated in a transversal way to all EU policy areas that impact on shared EU values and rights. Further, the report calls for renewed attention to be paid to the promotion of solidary-based and intercultural society.
 
During the debate in plenary sessions of the Parliament, Julie Ward commented her report saying that “too often, the dominant narrative is that somebody else is always to blame for the world’s problems. This results in a culture of fear. However, when people come together and talk honestly and share in each other’s culture, they learn that we’re all human beings with common aspirations and concerns. That’s the bottom line” (watch Ward’s discourse here).
The report can be downloaded here.