Multilateral Issues of International Cultural Policy

Multilateral issues of international cultural policy are defined as the agenda of the Directorate-General for Cultural Policy dealing with cultural matters within the framework of UNESCO, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE as well as the WMO and the UN University.

The role which language, culture, science, politics, religion and society play - in close linkage with each other – in the debate about European enlargement was in the centre of several events organised as a consecutive series by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs during the past few years. The point of departure was the international conference on "Multi-Culturality and Multi-Ethnicity in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe" held in Vienna in September 1998 during the Austrian EU- Presidency. The conference prepared the Vienna Declaration which met with a highly positive response and has meanwhile become the basis of follow-up events.

Most noteworthy among these are the conference "Unity with Diversity - a Multicultural Europe“ (Vienna, May 1999), and the symposium "Culture and Neighbourhood" (Klagenfurt, May 2000), as well as the international meeting "European Identities and Enlargement – Challenges, Resources, Perspectives“ (Cracow, November 2001), which also involved EU, UNESCO and IOM (International Organisation for Migration). In the year 2002, an event on "Europe of Regions – Europe of Citizens" held in Wroclaw followed while the scientific workshop "An Agenda for Austria and Poland" dealing with bilateral and multilateral issues alike took place in Cracow.

In June 1999 multicultural co-existence was looked at from the angle of globalisation at the international conference "Globality and Global Ethics – Illusion or Reality". The conference was held at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna at the initiative of Benita Ferrero-Waldner, then Secretary of State (now Minister) for Foreign Affairs. It turned its fundamental considerations concerning the topics on hand into a list of recommendations, the "Vienna Conclusions on Global Ethics", which have also been incorporated into UNESCO work in the field of cultural diversity.

The most significant outcomes of the conferences of September 1998 ("Multi-Culturality") and June 1999 ("Global Ethics") have also been published as books.