2006-02-06

EU welcomes Turkey’s participation in Culture 2000

Turkey is now set to participate in the Culture 2000 programme. This follows the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding on Turkey's participation in the Culture 2000 programme in 2006 by Mr van der Pas, Director General of the Directorate General for Education and Culture, and His Excellency, Oguz Demilralp, Turkish Ambassador to the European Union. The Memorandum should enter into force by the end of 2005.

The participation of Turkey is part of the pre-accession strategy. Bulgaria and Romania already participate in the Culture 2000 programme and negotiations will begin in the near future for Croatia to join in the successor programme (called Culture 2007) after 2007. Turkey's participation in this programme also contributes to the Commission's strategy on strengthening civil society dialogue and intercultural dialogue with candidate countries, in line with the conclusions of the European Council of December 2004. Turkey will participate on the same footing as Member States and contribute financially to the programme budget. The Culture 2000 programme encourages transnational co-operation between cultural operators across Europe.

For more information on Culture 2000, see: http://europa.eu.int/comm/culture/eac/index_en.html

Source: Newsletter of the Directorate General for Education and Culture, Brussels, November/December 2005