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KALEIDOSCOPE is the name of an initiative introduced in 1996 under the European Communities’ cultural policy. The programme was intended to promote contemporary artistic creativity, encourage the training and mobility of young artists in all cultural areas, and support innovative cultural events with a European dimension, as well as seeking to encourage greater public awareness of Europe’s cultural heritage. Although most of the activities that the programme financed were rather small-scale and amounted individually to a maximum of ecu 50,000, there were a number of larger projects such as the European Community Youth Orchestra and the European Capital of Culture. In 2000 the Culture 2000 framework programme, which ran until 2004, replaced the previous activities of Kaleidoscope and aimed to implement a new approach to cultural action. (See also Raphael.)

KALININGRAD, formerly known as Königsberg, was part of German East Prussia until this territory was annexed by the USSR in 1946. The territory offered the USSR direct access to the Baltic Sea and was one of the most militarized places in Europe during the Cold War. However, the dissolution of the USSR in the early 1990s transformed the Kaliningrad region into what was effectively a Russian exclave that was cut off geographically from Russia by Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus, and whose economic situation has been desperate for much of the time since. In 1992 it was declared a ‘free economic zone’ in the hope of attracting foreign investment. The enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include Poland and Lithuania heightened fears that the exclave could become completely isolated. Hence, the Russian Government was keen to ensure land access to Kaliningrad. Its initial proposal of a closed land corridor was rejected by Lithuania and the EU during accession negotiations. Instead, agreement was reached in 2002 on introducing special transit arrangements for Russian citizens from 1 July 2003. Sensitive to the economic situation of the enclave, the EU established Kaliningrad as a priority area in the 2002-03 Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States programme. This followed earlier financial assistance aimed at tackling severe environmental problems in the region, and was followed by funding worth €50m. for the period 2004-06. This was aimed at improving, inter alia, border

crossings, local economic development, administrative capacity building, and the environmental situation in the territory.