The ninth summit of heads of state of Southeast Europe, entitled "Contemporary Art and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe", will be held on Friday at the archaeological site of Viminacium outside the Danube river town of Kostolac, east of Belgrade.
The summit is hosted by Serbian President Boris Tadic and will be attended by Presidents Bamir Topi of Albania, Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria, Ivo Josipovic of Croatia, Gjorge Ivanov of Macedonia, Filip Vujanovic of Montenegro, and the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegovic.
Greece and Moldova will be represented by the Minister of Culture and the Deputy Minister of Culture respectively.
Also attending will be UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, the European Union Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androula Vasiliou, and the Council of Europe's Director-General for Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport, Gabriela Bataini-Dragoni.
UNESCO said in a statement earlier that the organisation's Secretary-General would call for more encouragement to regional cooperation projects.
The summit is expected to close with a joint declaration that should lay the ground for the promotion of cooperation between states and artists in the region in creating and protecting the future heritage of humanity.
The summit of heads of state of Southeast Europe is the continuation of an initiative that was launched by UNESCO at a high-level conference in April 2002 to promote cooperation in the region. Since then, summits have been held every year, and Croatia hosted one in 2006.
