06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Krakow (Poland) on 16/18 May the European Commission is organising a conference on the protection, conservation and promotion of European cultural heritage to coincide with the United Nations Cultural Heritage Year. The initiative to recognise the close ties between Eastern and Western common culture will assess progress in cooperating in research into cultural heritage, technologies and the methods used. The participants include Christian Patermann, Director of the Environment Programme at the European Commission's DG Research; Andrzej Golas, President of the city of Krakow; Cristina Guterrez MEP; and Milos Dradcky, who heads the first centre of cultural heritage centre of excellence set up by the European Commission, based in Prague. (Info: Julia Acavedo Bueno, DG Research, Brussels. Tel: 02 295 20 43; Fax: 02 295 82 20; e-mail julia.acevedo-bueno@cec.eu.int internet http: //http://www.heritage.ceti.pl