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Egidijus Meilunas and Malgorzata Czyzewska, 20.05.2011. Photo: urm.lt

Czyzewska acquainted the Deputy Minister with plans of the Borderland Foundation on 30 June, on the eve of taking over the Presidency of the European Union by Poland and on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of poet Czeslaw Milosz, to open the Centre for Intercultural Dialogue in the town of Krasnogruda on the Lithuanian-Polish border. The Centre will be dedicated to the strengthening of cross-cultural dialogue in the borderlands of various countries in the world and to the research of such dialogues. According to Czyzewska, the experience that was accumulated over twenty years of the Foundation's activities will allow to build bridges between the closest neighbours: Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians and Russians from the Kaliningrad region. The Centre will contribute with education, research, publishing and cultural activities. In her opinion, exchanges of people in culture, historians, teachers and youth from neighbouring countries and cooperation will take place at the Centre.

Deputy Minister Meilunas welcomed the Foundation's initiative and emphasized the benefits.

"These activities are very necessary. It is important to have and strengthen the dialogue between Lithuanian and Polish people in culture. It is particularly symbolic that the Centre will operate in the borderlands of a few countries, in a manor that was the property of the family of Milosz, the 'last national of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania' in the interwar period," Deputy Minister Meilunas said.

The Symposium "European Agora – Visions of Native Realm" is to be held under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from June 30 to July 2 in Krasnogruda.

The event will be attended by admirers of the Nobel Prize winner, philosophers and famous people in culture from all over the world. Participants of the symposium will interpret and comment on the collection of essays "Native Realm" (Rodzinna Europa) by Milosz, discuss cross-border communications, people's traditions, tolerance and conflicts.

The Borderland Foundation, located in Sejny, was established in May 1990. Its activities are devoted to culture and publishing. The Foundation publishes culture journal Krasnogruda.

The Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania and Sejm of Poland have announced 2011 as the year of Czeslaw Milosz.