As part of the Intercultural Cities programme, EUROCITIES coordinated a one-year programme whose results have been gathered in a document entitled "Intercultural cities - A journey through 23 European cities". This document presents concrete policies, actions and events implemented by cities to foster intercultural dialogue.

On the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, EUROCITIES cooperated with the Council of Europe in the framework of the Intercultural Cities programme, joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. As part of the second strand of this joint action focused on “Awareness and exchange” actions, a chain of visits from city to city were organized, giving the opportunity for the cities involved in the programme to sent a team of ambassadors (politicians, young persons and officers) to one other participating city in order to exchange experiences on how to foster intercultural dialogue through specific policies, structures or events.

Experiences implemented in cities have been compiled by the ambassadors in order to be presented in one publication entitled "Intercultural cities - A journey through 23 European cities", which was presented at the occasion of the final conference of the EUROCITIES strand of the programme in Amsterdam on March 5th 2009. The conference served as a meeting point of policy-makers from local, national and European level.

The publication documents the experiences of those involved in the visits and presents concrete policies, actions and events implemented by cities to foster intercultural dialogue. In total 23 city-to-city visits took place during major local events and festivals in 2008.

It also presents concrete recommendations to the European Commission to make sure that the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 has a long term impact on cities and 12 practical points for cities for encouraging intercultural dialogue.

EUROCITIES Final recommendations to the European Commission

• Set up a strategy for intercultural dialogue in order to ensure long-term sustainable results and capitalise on the “momentum” represented by the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008.
• Mainstream intercultural dialogue in all relevant EU policies and programmes for 2007-2013 and beyond.
• Support European-wide projects aimed at identifying and sharing best practices implemented in cities.
• Encourage concrete actions and measures for young people from different countries to meet each other.
• Create a mobility programme for politicians and civil servants in policy areas such as culture, youth, education, equal opportunities, inclusion, innovation, etc.
• Increase the importance of the intercultural dialogue criteria for “European Capitals of Culture”.