News archive - Proceedures for Association of Western Balkans to Horizon 2020 "well on track"
At the "Horizon 2020 Regional Launch Event for Western Balkans" on March 4, 2014 in Budva, Montenegro it was confirmed that the association proceedures for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are under way and well on track. This means that these WBC will participate in Horizon 2020 on equal terms like the EU Member States and not as "third countries". For all currently open calls, participants from the region and their consortia may prepare proposals as if they are already associated.
The legal entities which are eligible to receive automatic funding (no conditionality, no extra explaination needed) through Horizon 2020 are those established in the Member States of the European Union, including their overseas departments and the countries associated to Horizon 2020. These are countries that sign an agreement with the Union and also provide funding for the overall Horizon 2020 budget.
While there were no countries associated at the date of the publication of the work programmes, as negotiations were still ongoing, it is clear in the General Annes to the Work Programmes that the European Commission aims to have the countries associated to the Seventh Framework Programme in principle also to be associated to Horizon 2020 by the time the first grant agreements under Horizon 2020 are signed. This applies to Albania, Bosnia and Herzigovina, Faroe Islands, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.
As mentioned above, for the Western Balkans (except Kosovo*) these proceedures are well on track and shall be concluded soon, making Albania, Bosina and Herzegovina, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia associated countries - while there are problems with some other countries which some of you might have heard of: Switzerland as well as Liechtenstein have to be considered a non-associated countries and the Faroer Islands most likely in the first round of calls also. But for the WBC (again, except for Kosovo* where some legal proceedures are not yet finished), the European Commission emphasised at the Horizon 2020 launch conference, that there is no need to wait for finishing of the proceedures.
A constantly updated list of associated countries is available at http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/3cpart/h2020-hi-list-ac_en.pdf
A specific note on the Swiss participation has also been published: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-hi-swiss-part_en.pdf
For further information on international cooperation: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/cross-cutting-issues/international-cooperation_en.htm
- H2020
- Western Balkans
- General
Entry created by Elke Dall on March 6, 2014
Modified on March 6, 2014
