Brussels, 28/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - As part of the High Level EU-China People-to-People Dialogue, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou will commence a three-day visit to China on 29 November, where she will meet the Chinese minister for culture, Cai Wu, and other high level officials in order to strengthen cultural cooperation between the two sides. They will adopt a new joint statement as part of this dialogue, and will participate in the closing ceremony of the EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2012 (see EUROPE 10597). Vassiliou will also attend the first online EU film festival in China, and a conference on multilingualism aiming to promote the teaching of EU languages in China and of Mandarin in Europe. With regard to education, Vassiliou will meet the Chinese minister for education, Yuan Guiren, to discuss extending cooperation on joint teaching programmes and scholarships - the objective being to boost learning mobility between the two regions. “This year has seen some important milestones in this process with the launch of our High-Level People-to-People Dialogue and the success of the EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue. These initiatives are helping to bring our peoples closer together and I look forward to further deepening our ties during this visit”, Vassiliou said. (IL/transl.fl)