One of the most important objectives by the European Union is to build society based on the principles of pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men. For many years the EU anti-discriminatory legislation has been gradually strengthened through special directives on equal treatment and thanks to the efforts made by women’s and minorities movements. Unfortunately, what strikes most is more and more visible discrepancy between the legal system of protection from discrimination and the real situation in different EU member states. Despite subsequent initiatives, undertaken by the European Union, which are supposed to ensure wider protection from discrimination (e.g. establishing of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights or the European Gender Institute), nationalistic and xenophobic attitudes are still quite strong both in the “new” and in the “old” EU member states. Thus it seems that existing EU strategies and instruments are insufficient in order to ensure effective implementation of the promoted values. If so, the following question arises: will Europe remain helpless towards conservative tendencies in some of the EU member states where equality policy and tolerance for diversity is put into question?

On November 20, 2007, the Warsaw Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation attempted to answer that and many other questions during the Warsaw „Europe is different but is it equal?” conference. The focus of the conference, organized in the framework of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, was to analyze effectiveness of the EU instruments to combat discrimination. Two discussion panels, titled as follows: “Are there any chances for equality in Europe?” and “Diversity versus Homogeneity”, gathered Polish and foreign guest speakers – representatives of the European institutions, think tanks and non-governmental organizations (Open Society Institute, European Women’s Lobby, Women’s Studies of the Universität Dortmund, Institute of Philosophy of the Warsaw University). During the first part of the meeting panelists from abroad described how states they represented, namely Ireland, Czech Republic and Germany, dealt with the diversity issue, as well as analyzed the effectiveness of anti-discriminatory laws implemented in the countries mentioned. The second panel mainly addressed the issue of challenges faced by the society like Polish one, namely monolithic and unequal.

The conference gathered: representatives of feminist, human rights and sexual minorities non-governmental organizations (e.g. Amnesty International, Campaign Against Homophobia, Feminoteka Foundation), policy decision makers of different levels (e.g. representatives of Ministry of Higher Education), experts from universities (e.g. Institute of Social Policy at the Warsaw University, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw School of Economics), media.

Since the issue of diversity and management of diversity are not known well in Poland, it can be continued in the form of research/ analysis or a separate debate.