Promoting human rights and equality among young people is critical to achieving an open, tolerant and equal society. One of the founding principles of the European Union is respect for its diversity. The upheavals of European history show the importance of protecting national minorities and allowing different religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities to flourish. The peace and stability enjoyed by the EU over the last half century are largely due to this pluralism. As we can witness in the media, and public and political debates, cultural diversity is an important topic in most European countries today. The extent to which immigrant minorities have integrated, or are likely to integrate in the future, and the success or otherwise of policies such as multiculturalism, is high on the political agenda. Differences in attitudes and political aims or lacking social cohesion are also common within nations, often along regional cultural and linguistic lines, requiring integration efforts at the national level. Europe is increasingly a region marked by cultural diversity and foreign-born populations. It can be said, that the European Union (EU) is an ongoing project in diversity management. Member states bring their own histories, languages, economies, and political cultures to a common table in Brussels, and the individual citizens of the European Union exhibit the full cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of the entire world. As of May 1, 2004, a group of twenty-five national states will be bound together by a common set of European institutions, laws, and political actors that balance and manage the complex set of underlying objectives pursued by governments, business interests, civil society, and individual citizens. Diversity management in the European Union requires confronting and reconciling not only the diversity among states but also the increasingly diverse populations within those states. Unfortunately, many European youths, especially rural youth and youth with fewer opportunities, are not exposed to diverse cultures and religions and then discriminate and hold prejudices and stereotypical, xenophobic, viewpoints about other cultures that limit their own professional potential in addition to the potential of society. To this end, the main aim of this project was to raise young people's awareness of cultural diversity and equip them with the basic cross-cultural and critical thinking competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) needed to understand and respect cultural and religious diversity, as well as be successful in the globally-connected job marketplace of the future. Objectives: • to raise youth awareness on the importance of cultural competency and feel more confident and comfortable interacting with people from different religious, socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds • to increase youth knowledge on cultural diversity&critical thinking. to learn about Culture, Identity, Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination, Inclusion, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Community Impact • to develop youth critical thinking skills about different cultures. This will be for the purpose of both creating more inclusive societies in Europe, as well as preparing youth for the globalized and international job market • to increase youth intercultural communication and competencies working in an international and multicultural team