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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia to access EU FP7 for research, technological development

Belgrade, 12 June 2007

Serbian Minister of Science Ana Pesikan announced today that Serbia will join the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research and technological development tomorrow, which will help it participate in EU’s scientific and research initiatives on an equal footing with other member countries.

Ana Pesikan

Pesikan told a press conference that tomorrow in Brussels on behalf of Serbia she will sign the entry to the programme to be realised in the period 2007–2013.

She specified that the total programme budget stands at over €50 billion and participation in the programme enables international scientific cooperation and research, as well as implementation of projects from scientific and technical sciences and humanities.

She also stressed that Serbian researchers and scientific workers will be included in the work of the FP7 which will be the first step towards Serbia’s EU accession.

According to Pesikan, an agency will be set up within the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Belgrade University through which scientists and researches will get support for their projects with which they will afterwards apply for EU funds.

The Minister said she believes these quality research programmes will help improve the quality and conditions of the actual life in Serbia.

Director General of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre Roland Schenkel stressed that the FP7 is led by this Centre and that it will help Serbia take over EU’s scientific and technical legislative bases in the fields of environmental protection, food quality, energy and safety.

Schenkel said he is pleased with the response of scientists from Serbia regarding the participation in this programme and recalled that last year over 80 Serbian experts took part in various specialised EU workshops and programmes.

In the Sixth Framework Programme, implemented in the period 2002–2006, scientific workers and researchers took part in a total of 86 projects and received €12 million, as well as access to research that led to projects worth over €170 million.