Our Shared Europe project is British Council’s response to one of the major cultural challenges facing our continent today – the growing atmosphere of mistrust between different communities and wider European society. In the face of growing populism and the distance this signals, we will find new ways of opening conversations.

Our Shared Europe seeks to find common ground and build shared values, perspectives and behaviours that are based on mutual respect and trust.  In particular, it is about acknowledging the contribution of minority communities and cultures – both in the past and in the present – to the shaping of contemporary European civilisation and society.

The project will be delivered in a dozen of European countries including Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden as well as in the USA, Egypt and Morocco.

These are some of the most exciting examples of Our Shared Europe activities in Finland in 2011:

Campus seminar

Art & Refugees seminar

Helsinki Refugee Film Festival