Brussels, 20/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the fringes of the European conference in Maastricht on boosting European cooperation in the fields of professional education and training (see Europe of 16 December, p.17), European Commissioner Jan Figel, who is responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, awarded the Leonardo da Vinci prize on 15 December to the three best education projects. At the ceremony, Figel was accompanied by Mark Rutte, Dutch secretary of state for education, culture and science. Thirty-two projects were short-listed from a total of 165. The three prize winners were: 1) Powerful learning creates professional energy, a pan-European project; 2) giving credit for accumulated knowledge and skills benefits everyone (Norwegian project); and 3) e-learning develops medical imaging skills (a British project). The EU's Leonardo da Vinci programme promotes international education and training cooperation projects.