The present report deals with structures and procedures of existing national S&T programmes targeting SEE and contains a SWOT analysis of bilateral S&T co-operation programmes with South-Eastern Europe.

The conclusions of the comparative analysis can be summarised as follows:
➤ All of the SEE-ERA.NET countries aim to increase their own competitiveness, but the R&D expenditure – except for Austria, France and Germany – is far lower especially compared to the Barcelona objective of 3%.
➤ The bilateral S&T relationships of the SEE-ERA.NET countries represent a significant potential for the establishment of the European Research Area.
➤ The SEE-ERA.NET bilateral relationships, supplemented by the S&T co-operations between individual institutions, form a network of research capacity for the European Research Area.
➤ Most of the bilateral research is done at university level in the Western Balkan countries.
➤ The EU-Balkan countries Action Plan in S&T adopted at the Ministerial Conference in Thessalonica in 2003 resulted in new initiatives, measures and programmes in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Slovenia. New bilateral intergovernmental agreements have been or will be concluded among EU member states, candidate countries and Western Balkan countries.
➤ The main driving force of the Western Balkan countries for the development of bilateral co-operations with EU member states is to reintegrate into the scientific community of European countries.
➤ The effectiveness of bilateral S&T co-operation can be increased by supporting research costs besides the mobility costs, and by supporting the participation of SME-s.
➤ There is an urgent need for ex-post evaluation on project and programme level after closing the projects.
➤ The meetings of Joint Committees on S&T co-operation provide excellent opportunities for the leaders and decision-makers involved in science, research and innovation politics to exchange information on changes in S&T policy, research infrastructure, new initiatives, and discuss issues concerning the research and innovation policy of the European Union.