Bulgaria's Culture Ministry and the Bulgarian forum of the European Cultural Foundation would organise a conference on the new dimensions of intercultural dialogue in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe, Focus News Agency reported.

On November 15 Deputy Culture Minister Yavor Milushev, deputy director of the European Cultural Foundation Odile Chenal and managing director of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE Trust) Rayna Gavrilova would open the conference at the Sofia Art Gallery.

The conference would take place on November 15 and 16. It had the support of the EU Communication Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria 2007, Focus News Agency said.

Scientists from different universities, representatives of a number on institutions (Council of Ministers, Education Ministry, Culture Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Labour and Social Policy Ministry), foreign cultural institutes, NGOs from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia would participate in the conference.

The main topics of the conference would be From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism, Public Institutions and Civil Society, Instruments and Practices to Popularise Cultural Diversity and Dialogue, Art for Social Change and Intercultural Dialogue, Europe as an Intercultural Constellation, among others.

This conference was the first initiative dedicated to European and regional dimensions of problems of intercultural dialogue before the upcoming European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Its aim was to put an emphasis on culture as a partnership factor preserving Southeastern Europe's cultural integrity.

Part of the conference would be the presentation of Nina Obuljen's book Why We Need European Cultural Policies - The Impact of EU Enlargement on Cultural Policies in Transition Countries on November 16. Nina Obuljen's research was the first attempt to show the place of culture in the European policies. It showed a detailed analysis of EU policies aiming to influence the cultural sector. In 2004 it won Obuljen the first Cultural Policy Research Award founded by the European Cultural Foundation and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), Focus News Agency said.