Israel requests rapid renegotiation of scientific cooperation agreement
Israel has requested that its scientific cooperation agreement with the EU is renewed as soon as possible so as to enable the country to participate in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) as soon as possible. The appeal was made at the third meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council on 21 October. Israel participated in the Fifth Framework Programme on an equal footing with the EU Member States and was a partner in nearly 498 projects. Now that FP6 has been adopted, it is necessary to renegotiate the agreement. The Council is therefore examining the Commission's recommendation for a Council decision authorising the Commission to negotiate its renewal. The EU-Israel Association Committee is asking for the negotiation process to be accelerated in order to ensure that Israeli entities are able to participate from the outset of the Framework Programme. By June 2002, Israel was participating in 498 cooperative research projects, covering the whole range of the FP5 programmes. Some 131 projects were coordinated by Israeli entities. Israeli universities make up the highest percentage of entities participating in FP5 at 47 per cent, followed by industry at 37 per cent. Israel was particularly active in the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme, the Quality of Life programme and the Growth programme.