INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION POLICY

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photos couverture/© CE - EuropAid

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Directorate-General for ResearchUnit N.1 – International Scientific Cooperation Policy

E-mail: inco@cec.eu.int Contact: Irmela BRACH

European Commission

Office SDME 01/143

B-1049 Brussels

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Directorate-General for ResearchInternational Scientific Cooperation Policy

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

2004

From political Dialogueto concret Community Actions

Western Balkan Countries

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TABLE OF CONTENT 1. A vision of the EU for the Western Balkans Region page 3 2. A Western Balkan Area for S&T Research Partnership page 5 3. The Policy Dialog page 7 4. The Shared Vision page 8 5. The Action Plan page 9 6. Implementation of S&T Western Balkan Cooperation

under the RTD Framework Programmes page 11 ANNEX: Western Balkans – Participation in FP6 received proposals in 2003

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3

A Vision of the EU for the Western Balkans Region

The European Union launched its new policy to the Western Balkan1 region in 1999.

“The European Council in Feira in June 2000 confirmed the objective of the fullest possible integration of the countries of the Western Balkans into the political and economic mainstream of Europe and recognised the countries as potential candidates for EU membership. The Copenhagen European Council in December 2002 reaffirmed this perspective. It underlined the European Union’s determination to continue to support them in their efforts to realise their European aspirations.

1 The Western Balkan region includes five countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro

The Brussels European Council in March 2003 stated that “the future of the Western Balkans is within the EU” and invited “the Council and the Commission to examine ways and means, based also on the experience of the enlargement process, to further strengthen the Union's policy towards the region.”2 The European Council of Thessaloniki (21 June 2003), recalling its conclusions in Copenhagen (December 2002) and Brussels (March 2003), reiterated its determination to fully and effectively support the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries. It endorsed the new EU policy on the Western Balkans, including the roadmap "The Thessaloniki Agenda for the Western Balkans: moving towards European integration", which aims at further strengthening the privileged relations between the EU and the Western Balkans, also drawing from the enlargement experience, highlighting the need for regional cooperation in Research, Technology and Development.

2 COM (2003) 285 final: “The Western Balkans and European Integration”

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The Union's thus enriched Stabilisation and Association Process will remain the framework for the European course of the Western Balkan countries all the way to their future accession.

The Stabilisation and Association process (SAP) is the EU’s policy for relations between the Union and the Western Balkans. It is designed to help the five countries with their reforms and to bring them closer to European Union membership. It serves an invaluable purpose in promoting stability in the region. In the long term, the SAP offers these countries the prospect of full integration into EU structures.

All of this represents a significant, long-term commitment of the EU to promote peace, stability and prosperity in South East Europe. Central to this commitment however, is a recognition

that the key to success lies with the countries of the region themselves.

The CARDS programme (adopted in December 2000) is the financial instrument implementing the SAA, it has an indicative financial envelope of 4,65 billion Euro for the period of 2000-2006. It is important to underline that countries eligible for CARDS assistance should include capacity building on science and technology in their national priorities for financing; until now no research and technological development related activities have been taken into account under the multi-annual indicative programs which reflect priorities identified and agreed with the partners concerned.

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A Western Balkan Area for S&T Research Partnership

A strong EC-Yugoslav3 Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation was developed during the period 1986-1991 under the RTD successive policies (managed by DG RTD), requiring an annual financial Community contribution of 3,5 million €. This cooperation was interrupted at the time military conflict was declared in this region.

In the Commission’s communication “The International dimension of the European Research Area”4 setting up new guidelines for its S&T international cooperation policy, relations with the Western Balkans were recognised as “taking on ever increasing relevance for the European Union”, whereby they must “evolve into a genuine co-development policy, which alone can ensure stability, prosperity and security in this region” and research must “contribute towards meeting fundamental needs, the priority objectives for sustainable development”. 3 Four out of the five Western Balkan Countries were

involved: Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYROM, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

4 COM (2001) 346 of 25 June 2001

New ties in S&T have been therefore developed with this region since 2001, building on the legacy of the co-operation as well as on the Commission’s experience in international co-operation with the candidate countries, the Mediterranean and the NIS. An important Conference on “South-East Europe and the Mediterranean Area Challenges in the RTD Cooperation” was held at ministerial level in Cavtat (Croatia) on 18-20 November 2002: it served in particular as a forum for presenting new opportunities for the Western Balkans under the new 6th Framework programme (2002-2006).

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Croatia, a dynamic partner in Science and Technology

The European Council of Brussels (17&18 June 2004) decided that Croatia is a candidate country for membership and that the accession process should be launched, including the examination of the “acquis” where Chapter 17 is referred to Science and Technology.

In Croatia, science and research is under the authority of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. The technology policy is formulated in the Croatian Programme for Innovative Technological Development. This policy foresees radical changes in order to create an efficient and stimulating system of science and technology based on the EU model. Integration into the European Research Area should be supported through the CARDS and TEMPUS programmes for capacity building national activities. The Government Expenditure on Research and Development was 1.09% of GDP in 2001 (EU average: 1.99% of GDP). Estimated business expenditure equals between 32-45% of the amount allocated for RTD from the state budget. The Croatian research system consists of 5 universities, 28 public institutes, 11 research centres in the industry sector, 18 schools of professional higher education, 8 polytechnics, 1 military research centre and 50 others scientific research legal entities. Croatia participates in the 6th Framework Programme of the EU as a third country. Full participation in the Framework Programmes should be the first step towards the implementation of the acquis in the field of research and requires the development of research policy, infrastructure and the appropriate institutional set-up.

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The Policy Dialog The first formal consultation with high level representatives from Ministries of Science and technology of all Western Balkans countries was held in Brussels in October 2001 in order to discuss co-ordination of activities and identify the key thematic areas of regional importance and mutual interest. It has been agreed that environment, energy, health, agriculture, integrated management of water resources and industrial technologies for economic reconstruction are, for the time being, the most important regional priorities for co-operation between these countries and the European Union.

Two Ministerial level Conferences on S&T Cooperation between the EU and the South East European Countries (SEE5) took place in Bucharest and Sophia during 2002. The Ministers agreed on the necessity to develop a sustainable scheme of cooperation between the five Western Balkans, the candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey) and the EU.

5 SEE Countries : the 5 Western Balkan Countries,

Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and Greece.

They agreed on the above mentioned priority sectors to be promoted during this cooperation; they recommended the progressive integration of Western Balkan countries to the ERA; they finally suggested to set up sustainable networks between all these countries in order to promote this cooperation and to reinforce scientific exchanges and mobility of researchers.

The first bi-regional6 EU/Western Balkans ministerial meeting on S&T took place in Thessaloniki on 26 June 2003. The Ministers - building on the results of the existing dialogue with the EC as 6 Under the Greek EU Presidency, the S&T Ministers of

the 5 Western Balkan Countries, those of the 15 Member States, those of the 6 candidate and accession neighbouring countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey and Cyprus) and Commissioner Busquin representing the Commission met to agree on a common policy for cooperation and partnership on S&T.

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well as on complementary discussions held with the region – endorsed during this meeting a Shared Policy Vision and an Action-plan that would help the countries to prioritise their efforts in S&T to regain excellence in key strategic areas, that will foster regional co-operation and reconnection of the Western Balkans to the Member States and neighbouring South East European countries (Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Turkey) and that will provide guidance for and stimulate increasing international assistance.

The Shared Vision The Shared Vision for EU-Balkan countries Co-operation in Science and Technology expressed the priority to be given to RTD: “It is now necessary to undertake coherent actions for the reinforcement of the RTD capacity in each country and in the region as a whole.

To this end, the importance of RTD for the economic growth and the resolution of problems in each country should be put forward at the highest political level of all countries in order to

facilitate the necessary initiatives and the mobilisation of funds.” Four priority areas have been identified in a coherent and balanced way to maximise the expected goals:

• research infrastructures; • human potential; • institution building; • joint innovative research and

technology development.

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The Action Plan The Action plan specifies the objectives and thematic priorities set in the ‘Shared vision’ document, identifies the potential instruments for the implementation of the policy and provides for the preparation of annual Work programmes to be undertaken.

In terms of research infrastructure, projects of regional importance and impact should be elaborated and submitted for funding to existing assistance schemes. Financial support for projects of national importance could be obtained, to a lesser extent, from assistance schemes, through bilateral agreements with some Member States or through investment banks. This would require the commitment of the interested country.

In terms of human potential in RDT, the need to train policy makers, information multipliers and research administrators in modern concepts for the organisation of research systems is highlighted, as well as in the evaluation procedures of research activities. In parallel, actions for the improvement of the capacity of the research personnel would need to include their familiarisation with the ways of funding research activities, especially through competitive projects. It is also important to implement schemes for the networking and exchange of researchers within the South Eastern European region and between this region and the EU Member States.

In terms of Institution building, the re-organisation of the research systems should be promoted, where necessary, to achieve a simple and efficient structure with clearly defined goals. Issues related to Intellectual Property Rights should be addressed, and the adequate structures should be established. Moreover, the need of the research community for up-to-date information

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on EU RTD activities and assistance for the participation in these activities should be considered as a main priority.

Finally, in terms of joint innovative research, it is important to focus on a limited number of thematic priorities – scientific fields of intervention. It will also be necessary to promote projects of mutual benefit and regional impact.

According to the conclusions of several specific events organised during the last two years, the following scientific fields are considered as high priorities for cooperation: information and communication technologies,

energy (savings and renewable), environment (improvement, water management seismology), agriculture, health and biotechnology as well as cultural heritage. This action plan was translated into a work programme by the committee of high level representatives for EU-Western Balkans S&T cooperation, during its second meeting held in Florence in November 2003. Part of this work programme is implemented by the Commission under the INCO3 specific activities addressed to this region.

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Implementation of S&T Western Balkan Co-operation

under the RTD Framework Programmes Already within the 5th Framework Programme (1998-2002), an initial 4 million € call for proposals was launched in 2001: it resulted in support for 8 joint projects involving 54 participants of the 5 Western Balkan countries concerned, in the field of Health (consequences of war traumas) and Environment (industrial and conflict impact on the environment).

In the frame of the 6th RTD Framework Programme, the main objectives of this co-operation are to stabilise and reinforce the Western Balkan countries research potential and to contribute to sustainable development and thus help settle the political and social situation of the Western Balkan region.

The research priorities address issues related to the environment (management systems and technologies aimed at the prevention and re-mediation of environmental problems specific to the Western Balkan region, integrated management of regional water resources, promotion of innovative low-cost technologies for substantial energy savings) and Health (public health interventions on the post-conflict and post-trauma health problems; community-based interventions as well as research on organisation and management of health systems).

A call for proposals under INCO specific activities addressing these priorities was launched in 2003 with a total community funding of 16 M €. 17 joint research proposals and coordination actions have been selected for funding involving research legal entities from all 5 countries concerned.

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Results of the 2003 INCO-WBC call Area Number of

proposals Number of selected proposals

Country participation in proposals

Number of participants

Number of proposals

Water management

17 3 Albania 42 28

Renewable Energies

15 8 Bosnia-Herzegovina

43 29

Industrial and Municipal Waste Treatment

9 4 Croatia 50 33

Health 12 2 Serbia and Montenegro

84 46

Total 53 17 FYR of Macedonia

47 31

In addition, specific support activities are funded in the work programme thematic priorities applied to this region with a budget of 600 000 € in 2003 and 900 000 € in 2004.

In 2005, a new call for Specific Support Actions, with a budget of 3 M€, will be addressed to high quality research centres in the WBC to give them the possibility to improve their research capacities in the priorities of FP6. This will include: networking with other research centres in the WBC and

EU, exchange of personnel and of research results and joint experiments, training for PhD students and post doctoral researchers, hiring of new young researchers, maintenance or renewal of S&T equipments. It is expected that some ten research centres shall built new capacities with these support actions. As to the 7 Thematic Priorities of FP6, the Western Balkan countries show a rather significant participation in 2003. Two countries stand out from the group: Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro.

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It seems that the dynamics of the bi-regional dialog, the meetings of high level representatives, and the ministerial meeting “Research” in Thessaloniki, had a very positive effect in mobilizing the institutes and research entities in these countries.

But the results of evaluations and the following negotiations of contracts lead to a very low financial contribution from FP6 to these countries, as it is shown in the above table.

Western Balkan Countries

Participation in evaluated proposals

Participation in ranked proposals

Contribution in evaluated proposals

Contribution in ranked proposals

Albania 6 1 0,471 0,024Bosnia and Herzegovina 11 1 1,625 0,013Croatia 62 10 6,093 0,300Fyrom 13 0 1,616 0,000Serbia and Montenegro 72 5 10,058 0,508Totals 164 17 19,863 0,845

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Improve the participation in FP6 of the WBC research communities

The overall aim of the “ERA WESTBALKAN” project - funded in the INCO programme - is to raise the quantity and the quality of participations from the WBC in the 6FP. In order to achieve this, the creation and support of the network of FP6-National Contact Points (NCPs) will be promoted. This support comprises:

provision of training for selected NCPs regarding detailed know-how on preparing and implementing FP6 projects, producing local info material, organising information campaigns;

provision of training on how to use trans-national networks for

partner-search, CORDIS and presenting its information on the web;

elaboration of an overview of the research community in the participating countries and advise on ways of communicating with potential participants

The partners in this project are the ministries responsible for R&D, so the advice on how to best deal with FP6 in operative terms will be complemented by policy advice activities of a more strategic nature.

7 7 all PHOTOS : courtesy of EUROPEAID Mediathèque European Commission

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ANNEX Western Balkans – Participation in FP6 received proposals in 2003

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Nr. Propos. Nr. Particip.

Integrating and strengthening the ERA 36 50 46 61 108 141 62 78 138 196 232 526 Aeronautics and space 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 Citizens and governance in a knowledge-bas 2 2 4 4 6 8 3 3 5 6 13 23 Food quality and safety 0 0 2 2 9 9 2 2 12 13 17 26 Horizontal research activities involving SMEs 0 0 0 0 2 3 2 2 2 3 6 8 Information society technologies 5 5 4 4 25 32 15 16 28 33 55 90 Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology fo 0 0 1 2 4 4 3 3 9 11 16 20 Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowle 3 3 3 3 21 24 5 5 21 28 49 63 Specific measures in support of international 25 39 29 43 33 48 31 46 45 85 53 261 Supporting policies and anticipating scientific 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sustainable development, global change and 1 1 3 3 7 11 1 1 15 16 21 32 Others 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

Structuring the ERA 1 1 1 1 5 6 3 3 5 7 9 18

Research and training on nuclear energy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 Management of radioactive waste 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Radiation protection 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Others 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

Undefined 5 5 4 4 24 26 7 8 21 25 46 68

Grand Total 42 56 51 66 137 173 72 89 165 229 288 613

Western Balkans - Participation in FP6 received proposals in 2003Serb. & Mont. West Balkans

ActivityAlbania Bosnia-Herz. Croatia Macedonia

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European Commission

From political Dialogue to concrete Community Actions - Western Balkan Countries

OIB

2004 — 16 pp. — 21.0 x 29.7 cm

The Western Balkan region includes five countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM,Serbia and Montenegro.The European Union launched its new policy to the Western Balkan region in 1999.

The Union's thus enriched Stabilisation and Association Process will remain the framework for theEuropean course of the Western Balkan countries all the way to their future accession.

In 2005, a new call for Specific Support Actions, with a budget of 3 M €, will be addressed to high qualityresearch centres in the WBC to give them the possibility to improve their research capacities in thepriorities of FP6.

This will include: networking with other research centres in the WBC and EU, exchange of personnel andof research results and joint experiments, training for PhD students and post doctoral researchers,hiring of new young researchers, maintenance or renewal of S&T equipments. It is expected that someten research centres shall built new capacities with these support actions.