European Parliament Cultural Diversity Days : "European Cinema : A Soul for Europe" Tuesday 16, Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 October European Parliament, Rue Wietz / Brussels The Committee on Culture and Education is delighted to invite you to the European's Parliament Cultural Diversity Days. In addition to being a commemorative year, 2007 provides an opportunity to give a new lease of life to the words of Jean Monnet: 'If we had to begin all over again, we would start with culture'. This is why the European Parliament has decided to organize a special event about Cultural Diversity (program attached). This event, dedicated this year to cinema, will be a strong and tangible expression of the cultural policy promoted by the European Parliament. The European Parliament Conference on Cultural Diversity will have a dual aim: to illustrate, justify or question the European Parliament's cultural policy and to give the European Parliament Film Prize, which will be awarded the week after the Conference, ideological and political substance. The European Parliament has a cultural policy of its own and has given responsibility to its Committee on Culture, in view of the cultural aspects of the European Union, for improving the knowledge and dissemination of culture, for the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, and for the conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage, cultural exchanges and artistic creation. The Conference programme reflects these areas of responsibility, and primarily that of cultural and linguistic diversity. Cultural diversity could be interpreted broadly to enable the Conference to encompass cultures other than those making up the EU's identity, in particular southern cultures, in the framework of EU cooperation and neighbourhood policy. The three session composing the event will be : - A Soul for Europe trough European Cinema - What is at stake for European Cinema ? - Protecting Cinema's Diversity