Brussels, 05/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On a proposal by Viviane Reding (Education/Culture) and Chris Patten (External Relations), the European Commission should adopted a proposal on Wednesday 6 February to extend the university co-operation programme Tempus to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon. This extension comes within the Community strategy aimed at strengthening the dialogue between cultures. It was announced at the Education Council of 29 November of last year (see EUROPE of 30 November 2001). It will be funded by the MEDA programme with 21.5 million euro for 2003 and 21.5 million euro for 2004. This first programme in the field of higher education will strengthen the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.
In a press release, the spokesperson recalls that the current Tempus programme (2000-2006) organises co-operation in the field of higher education between the EU, Europe's south eastern countries (Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Fyrom and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), countries of the former USSR (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan. Ukraine and Uzbekistan) and Mongolia. Its aim is rapprochement between peoples and the setting up of solid civil societies guaranteeing democracy. It consists in the definition of joint projects between universities of the EU (at least two universities of two Member States) and one from eligible countries (at least one university), as well as individual scholarships for teachers, researchers and other specialists in higher education for short periods in partner countries, allowing for the improvement of the quality of university training systems on all sides and to speed-up restructuring.