The Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Cornelia Pieper, today (15 December) accepted from the President and First Vice President of the German Commission for UNESCO, Walter Hirche and Dr Verena Metze-Mangold, the White Paper “Shaping cultural diversity”. The White Paper contains recommendations from civil society for political action to implement the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in and by Germany.

Germany ratified the Convention in 2007 and has been active since then in drawing up the operative guidelines. The aim of the Convention is to protect and promote cultural diversity.

Minister of State Pieper welcomed the initiative:

“With our election to the Intergovernmental Committee of the UNESCO Convention, we took on special responsibility for drawing up the Convention. But only with the help of representatives of the business world and civil society can we find ways to implement the Convention successfully in Germany. The White Paper gives some very useful food for thought from civil society.”