how many chances do you give to Schwetzingen Palace for being inscribed this year?
I'm going to have a road trip to Germany - Benelux next week, and I'm not sure if to stop to this palace or not..

I do not think that Schwetzingen has a good chance, the ICOMOS evaluation says that "the comparative analysis shows that properties with similar values to those of Schwetzingen are already inscribed on the World Heritage List" and "This is patently a complex of high value at the national and European levels; however, it does not achieve outstanding universal value in areas already well represented on the World Heritage List."
That's also my opinion. A decision in favour of Schwetzingen would open the door for many more European castles, monasteries etc.
But the palace is very close to the motorway and if you like parks, it may be worthwhile to stroll an hour or so through the nice Baroque and English landscape garden. I would skip a tour through the palace itself, there's nothing exceptional.
If your time is limited, I would prefer to visit the other WHS in that hotspot: Völklingen ironworks, Maulbronn Abbey, Speyer Cathedral, Lorsch (a tour to the interior only takes 30 minutes), Messel pit (there is a new visitor center, but I would recommend to take a guided tour).

If you are planning further ahead (about 10-15 years or so), I can recommend a visit of the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt_Artists%27_Colony

They make a bid for the German Tentative List for the years 2015-2030 and have a good chance, I think. Also for the final inscription in the WH list.

According to the news on the Unesco website, the upcoming session of the WHC will consider 36 new sites.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/880

However, the 'Twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow' is still on the list although it was reported to be withdrawn.

There are two sites that will be processed on an emergency basis:

Chauvet – Pont d'Arc decorated cave (France)

Church of the Nativity and pilgrimage route, Bethlehem (Palestine)

And they report that "for the first time in its 40-year history, members of the public and the media will be able to follow the debates of the Committee through live streaming on the internet."

ICOMOS advises against emergency inscription:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/06/12/international-council-rejects-palestinian-claim- on-church-of-nativity/

It does make me wonder, if Bethlehem isn't considered urgent, then what is it that would qualify Chauvet?

The cave has been sealed off from most people since it's discovery in 1994. The age and quality of the artworks has been well known for many years and I can't find any reports of imminent threats. The paintings seem to have lasted 32,000 years in their current condition, so what is it that suddenly makes the inscription urgent?

I guess I am missing something, surely it isn't just a tactic to get two cultural sites inscribed at the same meeting?

That isn't saying I don't think it should be inscribed, it certainly should. So maybe France should have just put it forward as its cultural site for this year and pushed the Mining sites of Pays de Calais back to next year.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We've given a boost to our WHS count, by making 33 in a tour of Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg (12 days loop with start / end in Frankfurt). For Europe I don't plan future tentative list sites, but we had the chance to visit all possible inclusion of 2012, including the garden only of Schwetzingen, which did not add much to what we've already seen in other palace gardens already in WHS list (maybe only the mosque it's new for us). I've been today to both Volklingen and Messel Pit, we loved both, despite of the rain. About Lorsch we're very disappointed since the buildings are undergoing major repairs and we couldn't do anything better than taking pics of us and the scaffoldings. We found the mining sites of Belgium and France interesting, but more as a unique multicountry inscription rather than 2 different ones. Italian site is nothing special and Qatar is not ready. Bahrain is nice but not worth the WHS status. Let's see soon which site will be added, i bet on the Palestine.

Els, thanks fot the useful link on Palestine. We feel so bad for not being able to visit anything else in the middle east while working in Saudi. Everybody advised us not to go to Lebanon in 2012 but I read from your report that everything was fine this spring. We envy you!!! On july i'll move to Canada so we plan to make soon all the North American Whs and TL, even if the Wahanni river is so crazy expensive!!! I wish we could live in Europe with the money we make abroad.. Soon I'll post my reviews of all whs recently visited.

33 in 12 days! you must be very tired of them now, alexlove74
but this shows how much of a hotspot the area between Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris is

Lebanon indeed was very fine earlier this year, and despite some reported incidents in Tripoli I would go there again without any doubt. I met a lot of people working in the Gulf states, and even in Afghanistan, who were on a short holiday to Beirut. The country is so small that you can see everything on day trips from the capital. And it surely has more history left than the Gulf.

Els, we're never tired of WHS!!! It tooks 2 months to plan it, watching opening times, planning the routes, setting the GPS and Google Earth, booking hotels, checking which sites were open on mondays... and it was wonderful to live it!! The bad point of the trip, other than restoration ongoing in Lorsch, was the Wouda Pumping Station. I couldn't imagine that in the Netherlands the guide was not speaking english, so we could not live the tour as we wished (but anyway we read a lot about it, before going, so it wasn't so bad). The other bad surprise about it, was the visitor center with descriptions only in Dutch. I almost everywhere find an English description.. and it's so strange, for such a new visitor center, not to have english translations.
It's always easy to move in Europe, so many hotspots. I'm updating my count of visited WHS but it's so hard to climb the rankings, with so many fellow WHS fanatics!!! About Lebanon, I've to give up for security reasons, since I always move with my wife and our 4-years-old kids.. but now you're making me think twice about it!!
It's lovely to share this passion with so many people, thanks again for this wonderful site!

The following article indicates that France has in fact withdrawn Chauvet from the attempt to get it nominated "in emergency".

But Palestine appears to be continuing to push for Bethlehem despite the negative recommendation of ICOMOS and the opposition of the World Heritage Centre. All will become clear next week!!

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/palestinians-push-unesco-to-make-bethlehem-s- nativity-church-a-world-heritage-site-1.443332

Has anyone found out where the "live" blog of discussions/events at the WHC is going to appear??

There should be a live broadcast via this link:

http://whc36-russia2012.ru/category.php?cat_id=5

This report says that 31 sites are up for discussion:
http://en.ria.ru/world/20120624/174210471.html

If I have counted well, there originally were 38 sites (including re-runs and emergency).

So which 7 have withdrawn?
- Chauvet (Fra)
- Wearmouth-Jarrow (UK)
- ..

There seems to be different reports on the number of nominations. According to recent news from the WHC homepage from June 22nd, 33 sites are considered for inscription:

http://whc36-russia2012.ru/category.php?cat_id=1014

Obviously Spain (Plasencia–Monfrague-Trujillo) and Macedonia (Archaeo-astronomical Site Kokino) have also withdrawn their nominations.

It's 33 plus Bethlehem, so indeed UK, France, Spain and Macedonia have withdrawn.

Does anyone know if USA is present with an observer team following its withdrawal of funds from UNESCO over the Palestine issue? I would presume it might be wanting to make itself heard "behind the scenes" but probably has enough proxies to do so and enough other opportunities!
And there could be items which effect it directly eg regarding "Monitoring Reviews" or "State of Conservation" reports?