Regional Project News

Euro-Med Dialogue Award rewards joint Middle East eco project

A civil society advocacy organization - ‘ECOPEACE Friends of the Earth Middle East’ – jointly established by environmentalists from Palestine, Jordan and Israel, has won the Anna Lindh Foundation’s 2010 Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Award.

 

The award, this year on the theme of ‘Intercultural Dialogue for Ecological Sustainability’, is awarded by members of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s region-wide Network of 3,000 civil society organizations working across the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean.  

 

Speaking after the announcement, the organisation’s regional co-directors - Munqeth Mehyar (Jordan) Nader Khateeb (Palestine) and Gidon Bromberg (Israel) – said: “Our 'Environmental Peacemaking' work focuses precisely on the interdependent nature of our region's shared natural and cultural resources, thus creating a platform for dialogue so necessary in our area.  The exposure and recognition from this Award will help us to continue to forward ecological sustainability in our shared region”.

 

Andreu Claret, Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, said the winners were “an inspiring example of how intercultural action can address the major issues of our time.  In bringing together NGOs from Jordan, Palestine and Israel, ‘Friends of the Earth Middle East’ are in a unique position to promote social and environmental stability, as well as a culture of peace at the grass-root level.”

 

Launched for the first time in 2006 by the Anna Lindh Foundation and its partner Fondazione Mediterraneo, the Euro-Med Dialogue Award is now in its fifth edition, with previous years recognizing the achievements of individuals and organizations across fields including interreligious dialogue, art and mutual understanding, and the promotion of a culture of peace.

 

The second place of the Euro-Med Award for 2010 went to Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), an institution which carries out over 300 environmental projects a year in and within 16 different European countries in addition to Turkey. The third place went The Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI) a Spanish organization which promotes Euro-Islam dialogue and to help find solutions to society’s difficulties.

 

The Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures is a €7 million EU-funded project which aims at bringing people and organisations of the region closer and promoting dialogue, by offering them opportunities to work together on projects in the fields of culture, education, science, human rights, sustainable development, the empowerment of women and the arts. The Foundation is the first institution to be jointly created and co-financed by all member countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. (ENPI Info Centre)

 

Press release

 

Euromed Dialogue Award Finalists

 

Anna Lindh Foundation – fiche and news

 

Anna Lindh Foundation – website