The purpose of this document is to map, for the first time, in Tempus the preferred partnerships between the participating countries, namely the 27 EU Member States and the 29 neighbouring countries and territories benefiting from the Programme.
The objective is to highlight the privileged relations among the countries concerned as reflected in the composition of Tempus project consortia and try to distinguish categories of countries.
The interpretation of the data available goes far beyond the objective of this working document and would need an actual in‐depth geo‐political analysis of inter‐country relations. However it is obvious that the Tempus cooperation maps reflect to a large extent historical, cultural, linguistic, economic and societal links inherited from the past.

The information provided by the maps may be helpful for future reflections regarding the adaptation of EU policies and programmes, in particular Tempus. It may also provide interesting references for higher education policy makers and those who manage programmes and actions with the countries concerned.

Most of the Western Balkan countries have developed their strongest links with an axis including Austria, Germany, Italy, to a lesser extent Greece and in some cases Sweden. It goes without saying that they have also developed active links with the other big EU countries such as France, Spain and the United Kingdom and always show a clear interest in Western EU countries. Croatia and Serbia , by contrast, have also managed to develop activities on their Eastern and North‐Eastern side starting with Bulgaria and Romania and upwards North with Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.