"Cultural identities, common values and European citizenship": it is the title of a two-year project started after the summit of the heads of State and government of the Council of Europe, taking place in Warsaw in 2005. Entrusted to a group of European experts, the goal of the project is "to establish how culture and the understanding of the cultural heritage may give a remarkable contribution to a higher sensitization with respect to human rights, democracy and the legally constituted state" in the Old Continent, "fostering also the accomplishment of the latest, with the aim of living together in a peaceful and democratic society". The results of the project are illustrated in Strasbourg today, at the base of the Council of Europe, during a forum on the subject: "For Europe with cultural values". The top management of the Council of Europe said that, during the forum, two instruments of "communication and sensitization" would also be introduced: "A sketch of European manifesto for a multiple cultural identity", and the project for "a textbook on the values of democratic life, addressed to educators, cultural mediators, and the operators working in close touch with the young". The initiative by the Council of Europe takes place just before the presentation of the programmes for 2008 by the EU Commission. 2008 was proclaimed European Year of intercultural dialogue.
