Brussels, 12/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission authorised the French and Dutch aid for the ITEA research programme (Information Technology for European Advancement). Element of the European Eureka programme, ITEA has objective to promote industrial research in the computing sector and especially develop technologies for middleware technology. France will contribute EUR 274 million and the Netherlands EUR 95 million to this programme that has a budget of some EUR 3.2 billion until June 2007. The Commission feels that the aid "comply with the Community framework for state aid for research and development."