Intercultural dialogue and diversity within the EU
Intercultural dialogue and diversity within the EU

Summary/Abstract: The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008) aims at promoting the value of diversity. This paper explores the meaning of the concept of diversity in EU policies and legislation. Diversity among the Member States is a fundamental basis of the legal and institutional set-up of the EU. Diversity within the Member States is more ambivalent. Although the Copenhagen criteria demanded ‘respect for and protection of minorities’ from the accession states, the EU itself lacked a specific competence on minority policies and could not (or did not want to) demand the same from the ‘old’ Member States. Recent policy developments have replaced multi-culturalism by integration and have replaced group rights with individual rights. EU legislation against discrimination has been given a substantial impetus, but is still contradictory and unbalanced. EU anti-discrimination law discriminates between the various ground of discrimination. While the EU continues to demand comprehensive anti-discrimination policies from its external partners, it so far has failed to bring its own house in order.

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