ERCIM News No.25 - April 1996

Cooperation with Central and Eastern European Countries

by Jean-Michel Chassériaux

ERCIM is participating in one of the panels which was set up after the joint European Union/Central and Eastern Europe Countries Forum on the Information Society in June 95 in Brussels. The panel met in Slovenia on the 7-8 February and produced a report recommending practical proposals for closer cooperation between the European Union and the Central and Eastern European Countries in the field of Research and Development.

The European Commission, conscious of the opportunities and threats of the Information Society for Europe as a whole decided to call a 'European Union/Central and Eastern Europe Countries Forum on the Information Society' in Brussels. The underlying aim was to ensure that Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEECs) which have or are negociating Association agreements with the EU will fully participate and benefit from this new revolution. Moreover, developing a close partnership for the preparation of the Information Society (which is of high economic and political priority for both the EU and the CEECs) can be seen as a part of the pre-adhesion strategy. As a conclusion to this event, it was decided to set up a steering group and four panels:

infrastructure and financing
standardisation and technical regulation
legal and institutional framework
cooperation in R&D.

ERCIM is the only non-governmental institution participating in this last panel which met in Slovenia on the 7-8th and produced a report "The Path to the Information Society in the Central and Eastern European Countries - The Role of Research & Development and Experimentation".This report presents several practical proposals in order:

to increase awareness of the Information Society in the CEECs and to the development of national strategies in these countries
to stimulate joint research-projects and pilot applications leading
the way to a globally oriented Information Technology in Europe
to disseminate information on the different R&D and support programmes of the EU and to improve the access of the CEECs to these programmes, taking onto account their national strategies.

Please contact:
Jean-Michel Chassériaux - ERCIM Managing Director
Tel: +33 1 3963 5303
E-mail: Jean-Michel.Chasseriaux@inria.fr

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