Intercultural Institute of Timisoara (Romania)

The Intercultural Institute of Timisoara (I.I.T.) is an autonomous, non-governmental institution, having cultural, civic and scientific activities, without political purposes and which adheres to the values and the principles of the Council of Europe concerning inter-culturality. The I.I.T. was established in 1992 with the support of the local authorities of Timisoara and of the Council of Europe.

Through its programmes and its activities, the I.I.T. pursues the development of the inter-cultural dimension in the fields of education and culture. The I.I.T. also promotes, at the national and international level, a climate of tolerance and inter-ethnic communication specific to the town of Timisoara and to the region of Banat.

The I.I.T. has established a wide network of partners from different regions of Romania and from several European countries, including institutions, NGOs and professionals from its interest areas. I.I.T. is co-operating very well with local, regional and national authorities in the fields of education, culture, youth and national minorities.

A particularly fruitful co-operation has been developed with the Council of Europe, mainly with the departments of education, culture and youth and with the Confidence-Building Measures Programme.

The Intercultural Institute has been actively involved in several important projects of the Council of Europe:

Democracy, human rights, minorities: the educational and cultural aspects All different, all equal - youth campaign against racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance Education for democratic citizenship

Since 1996, the Intercultural Institute has implemented, as coordinator or partner, over 20 pilot projects, mainly related to inter-cultural education, at local, regional, national and international level, with financial support from:

And has published 16 volumes resulted from different projects, in Romanian, French, English and Hungarian and has published the Romanian version of four volumes of the Council of Europe, including:

In 1998 the Intercultural Institute became the first Eastern-European institution that co-ordinates a trans-national Socrates - Comenius action 2 project - the EURROM project, which aims to developing methodological guidelines and resources for teachers working with Roma children in order to integrate Roma culture into the educational process. The partners of the EURROM project come from Romania, France, the Slovak Republic and Spain.

Since 1998 the Intercultural Institute has developed close partnerships with several civic, minorities and youth NGOs from neighbouring Yugoslavia. Two representatives of the Intercultural Institute are currently members of working groups of the Education Task Force of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe.