Azerbaijan joins meeting of Platform 4 of Eastern Partnership
Baku, December 5 (AZERTAC). Brussels on December 4-5 hosted the eight meeting of the Platform 4 of Eastern Partnership program. The meeting themed “Relationships between people” discussed issues such as policy and research in the field of youth and culture. During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on programs of new generation such as the Erasmus Mundus, Creative Europe and Horizon 2020, which envisage cooperation in the cultural and audiovisual fields. Azerbaijani delegation included representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs, education, culture and tourism, youth and sports.
At its meeting of 27 October 2011, Platform 4 adopted its Work Programme for the years 2012-2013, in accordance with the general guidelines and rules of procedure of the Eastern Partnership Multilateral Platforms. The European Commission was guided by a number of considerations, including the lessons learnt from the implementation of the first Platform 4 work programme (2010-11), and the recommendations made by Platform 4 participants at their meeting of 5 May 2011. A limited number of actions are proposed, to ensure that the Work Programme is focused and can therefore have a measurable impact. This work programme will remain flexible enough to allow new initiatives to be added at a later stage, if the need arises. Actions under this work programme will expand cooperation in education, youth, research and innovation, culture, audio-visual sector and information society. In addition, in line with the recent joint Communication 'A New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood: a Review of European Neighbourhood Policy' increased emphasis will be given to drawing together the strands of cooperation in research and innovation, including the mobility of students, researchers and academics, to build a Common Knowledge and Innovation Space with the Eastern Partnership counties.
In the first instance, the Commission will organise an information campaign to raise awareness on the new generation of international cooperation programmes (2014-20) in education, youth, culture, and research and innovation, and the new opportunities offered to EaP countries in this context.
The Commission proposes to implement a number of actions to reinforce the participation of EaP countries in EU international cooperation programmes and strengthen its dialogue on the policies covered by Platform 4: Education, Research and Innovation, Youth, Culture, Audiovisual sector and ) Information Society.