KONFERENCJA „PERIODIC REPORTING FOLLOW-UP MEETING FOR EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE” Wrocław, 14-15 września 2007 r.

Ameeting of experts dealing with the UNESCO World Heritage, attended by 37 participants from 13 countries, was held in Wroclaw on 14-15 September 2007. The session was organised by the National Heritage Board of Poland in the name of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The states-signatories of the UNESCO convention on the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage are obligated to present reports on the realisation of the convention’s resolutions. The first series of the European Regular Report was conducted in 2003-2006. The Wroclaw conference was the first meeting of the representatives of Central and East European countries, dedicated to continuing undertakings stemming from the Regular Report. Subsequently, it became a forum for an exchange of experiences and joint conclusions. In view of the fact that the Report encompasses the earliest entries on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the participants of the meeting asserted the necessity of supplements which, in the first stage, are to explain the limits of the included site and its protective sphere and then discuss the criteria according to which it had been originally placed on the List. Subsequent tasks entail defining the exceptional merits of a given site. The meeting also considered plans for a system of administering the world heritage sites. The participants stressed unanimously that a suitable pronouncement of the significance of a site and its exceptional value forms a basis for effective administration. The conference included a tour of the Centennial Hall in Wrocław, together with the adjoining exposition area – the most recent Polsh site to be included onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.