“Associated status” allows these countries (as well as Turkey, which signed a similar Memorandum on June 1) to participate in all calls for proposals and compete on an equal footing with the EU Member States for research co-operation and support actions funded by FP7.

At the signing ceremony Commissioner Potočnik expressed great satisfaction that less than a year after he had announced in Vienna (at the launch of the Steering Platform), the opening of the doors of the European Research Area widely to all Western Balkan countries, signing of the Memoranda of Understanding could already take place with three Balkan countries. This matches his high expectations. He was also very proud that the Western Balkan countries, which are for various reasons close to his heart, were among the first to become associated to FP7. The Memorandum of Understanding entered into force on June 13, but it is applied as from January 1, 2007.

(Information provided by European Commission, DG Research)

Article published in eJournal summer 2007.
Original article published on the website June 14, 2007.

Croatia and Turkey had already participated as associated countries in FP6; for Serbia and FYR Macedonia this is the first time to participate in the programme in this way.

Link for further information (EC Press Release):
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/816&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=de