Education which helps citizens live together in our diverse societies is a matter of urgency. We all need to develop the ability to understand each other across all types of cultural barriers; this is a fundamental prerequisite for making our diverse democratic societies work.This publication looks at the development of intercultural competence as a key element of mainstream education. It stresses the need firstly for an appropriate education policy which puts intercultural competence at the heart of all education and, above all, for the development, on an everyday basis, of the necessary attitudes, skills and knowledge needed for mutual understanding. Without these, no sustainable societal change is possible.