EU proposes to extend its cooperation with Mediterranean universities

Brussels, 12 February 2002

The European Commission has adopted a proposal to extend its university cooperation programme, TEMPUS, to a number of Mediterranean countries.

The programme is to be extended to universities in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia. Until now, TEMPUS has coordinated cooperation in higher education between the EU and the countries of South East Europe (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), the former USSR (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldavia, Tajikistan, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) and Mongolia.

'A successful dialogue between cultures needs solid foundations, and those foundations are education and culture, which enable citizens to get to know each other better. In proposing to extend the TEMPUS programme to a number of Mediterranean partners, the European Commission will enable teachers, students and researchers to work better together and thus help to forge solid links on both sides of the Mediterranean,' said EU Commissioner for Education and Culture, Viviane Reding.

TEMPUS involves the definition of common projects between universities, at least two of which must be in the European Union, and one of the eligible countries, with individual grants for researchers, teachers and other specialists in higher education for short visits to the partner countries. The programme aims to improve the quality of university training systems and speed up restructuring.

For further information on the TEMPUS programme, please consult the following web address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/tem pus/home.html

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001