Czech Republic/ 3.4 International cultural co-operation  

3.4.5 Cross-border intercultural dialogue and co-operation

In the Czech Republic (CR), there is a wide range of programmes that directly or indirectly support intercultural dialogue and cooperation. Support for this field is allocated via the more general state programmes; intercultural dialogue is not a priority but it is sufficiently covered within the Ministry of Culture's scope of support. The following programmes are in the competence of the Ministry of Culture (MC):

• support for cultural activities of members of ethnic minorities living in the CR;
• support for the integration of Romany community members;
• support for foreign contacts in the field of non-professional artistic activities;
• support for international cooperation in the field of art; and
• support for projects that support widening and accepting information about national minorities in society in the field of radio or television broadcasting.

The Ministry of the Interior supports projects within the policy for asylum-seekers. It determines its priorities on an annual basis. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs announces a grant procedure annually for projects to support the integration of foreigners, mostly integration of vulnerable groups of immigrants like women, for instance.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MYES) supports the education of asylum-seekers and integration of foreigners and projects of foreign co-operation for the development of teachers in this field within its development and support programmes and through the National Institute for Further Education. The MYES is also responsible for supporting projects for youth, including international projects in the field of education and out-of-school activities; nevertheless, they do not specialise in the field of culture. The MEYS follows the Concept of the National Policy for Children and Youth 2007-2013. The Ministry also manages the European programme "Youth in Action" through the National Institute of Children and Youth. The National Agency for European Educational Programmes, which is a part of the MEYS House of Foreign Services, coordinates educational programmes of international cooperation like Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig, Comenius and others.

The MC supervises cultural projects for children and youth through grant selection procedures, including support for international festivals and showcases and others.

Intercultural dialogue is also supported by private foundations like the Czech-German Fund of the Future, the Forum 2000 Foundation (support for cultural and ethnic tolerance in young democracies), the Tolerance Foundation (general support for intercultural dialogue), the Open Society Fund (the programme of International East-East cooperation) and the Committee of Good Will – Olga Havlová Foundation (a programme for human rights and Roma people).

Many smaller cross-border projects of cultural cooperation are supported by the Structural Funds – the programme of Inter-regional Co-operation within Goal 3 – European Territorial Co-operation.

In the CR, there are many non-governmental organisations that deal with some form of cross-border intercultural dialogue. For example, Archa Theatre systematically works with this topic in its arts projects. In 2008, it prepared a successful project "Archa Theatre: No speech, no problem..." in co-operation with the Arts Institute, One World festival and the Colours of Ostrava festival http://www.archatheatre.cz. Another example is the civic association Mamapapa, which is dedicated to international interdisciplinary projects in the CR and the Balkans and it deals mostly with creative work involving the Vietnamese community in the CR. The Multicultural Centre Prague and the Brno Cultural Centre rank among the important culture centres involved in this field of work. More information on multicultural projects is available at: http://www.mezikulturnidialog.cz.

For more information, see our Intercultural Dialogue section.

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