26/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Nikolaus van der Pas, director-general of DG Education and Culture and Oguz Demilralp, the Turkish ambassador the European Union, signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday morning, whereby Turkey will take part in the programme "Culture 2000" as of 2006. Turkey's involvement in this programme comes under the pre-accession strategy, according to the Commission, and the country will contribute to the funding of the programme's budget (1.4 million EUR) in the same way as the other Member States. Bulgaria and Romania are already taking part in "Culture 2000", and negotiations will start in the near future with Croatia, which hopes to take part in the programme as of 2007.