EU to Help Russia Financially Improve Interethnic Relations in the Country

The European Union will allocate two million euro for the realisation in Russia of the project, The Improvement of Interethnic Relations, Development of Tolerance and Countering Extremism.

A RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the office of the European Commission (the highest executive body of the European Union) in Russia that the project will be carried out in the course of two years.

The aim of the project is to render technical assistance in "fostering tolerance, creating a harmonious multiethnic society and enhancing the recognition of the rights of ethnic minorities among the population," reported the office of the European Commission in Russia. The Network of Ethnological Monitoring and Early Warning of Conflicts, a non-governmental organisation which was founded in 1993 by the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is a partner from the Russian side in the project implementation.

On the part of the European Union, the project will be carried out by the consortium of the leading European organisations whose members are the German-Russian Exchange (Germany), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (Great Britain) and the Dialogue Development (Denmark).