The EU’s Ministers of Culture, chaired by the Slovenian Minister of Culture, Vasko Simoniti, invited the Slovenian Minister of Education and Sport and current President of the Education, Youth and Culture Council, Dr Milan Zver, to attend the meeting of the Council of Ministers for Culture, at which conclusions on intercultural competencies would be adopted. “Intercultural competencies cover the knowledge and skills needed to communicate with others. It is all meaningless, however, if there is no true desire, no will and no readiness for dialogue,” commented Dr Zver in Brussels today. Due to the wide scope of the meaning of intercultural competencies, the culture professionals decided to take a cross-sectoral approach. “With our contributions, we educationalists wished to emphasise the importance of knowledge. Lack of knowledge provides a fertile breeding ground for prejudices and stereotypes and these, in turn, generate conflicts and major tragedies,” commented the Minister after the meeting, adding, “All this has been included in the paper adopted by Ministers for Culture today. I hope we will succeed in realising these goals and thus contributing to a better future for all of us.”
This evening, the Minister will attend the official opening of the Youth Music Event marking the final phase of the 18-month EU trio Presidency of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. The keynote speakers at the event will be the Slovenian Minister, Dr Milan Zver, and the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Mr Ján Figel’, who will deliver speeches about the success of the 18-month Presidency programme. After the event, the Minister will meet the European social partners. They will discuss the key issues of the meeting of the Education, Youth and Culture Council to be chaired by the Minister tomorrow, 22 May 2008.
