Culture Community programmes: participation of Estonia in Ariane, Kaleidoscope and Raphaël

OBJECTIVE: within the framework of the pre-accession strategy, to open up the Community's Ariane, Kaleidoscope and Raphael programmes to Estonia for the period 1998 to 2000. COMMUNITY MEASURE: Council Decision 98/644/EC adopting the conditions and procedures for the participation of Estonia in the Community programmes in the field of culture. SUBSTANCE: Decision 4/98 by the EC-Estonia Association Council lays down the conditions and procedures for Estonia's participation in the three Community programmes in the field of culture. In particular, Estonia: - shall participate in all actions of the programme under the same conditions as the Member States; - shall apply the same terms and conditions for the submission, assessment and selection of applications as those applying to the Member States; - shall include in all transnational measures and projects proposed a minimum number of partners from the Member States; - shall pay a contribution to the budget of the Community to cover its participation in these three programmes. This will cover the financial aid provided to Estonian participants under the three programmes and the additional administrative costs imputable to the management of the programme by the Commission. The contribution varies according to the programme and will be paid annually. It may also cover one or several years (for example, the contribution to Ariane and Kaleidoscope is limited to 1998). To some extent, the Community will contribute to these contributions by deducting the necessary amounts from the annual financial allocation to PHARE/Estonia. However, PHARE would not cover the administrative costs imputable to the management of the programme by the Commission, which are to be met in their entirety from Estonia's national budget. In total, this financial contribution amounts to ECU 42 552 for the three years concerned (of which ECU 5 445.5 comes under PHARE). Estonia will be involved in monitoring its participation in the cultural programmes in order to prepare for the Community decision-making process with a view to accession (particularly by attending coordination meetings before meetings of the programmes' management committee and by being informed of the results of these meetings). ENTRY INTO FORCE: 1 December 1998. Estonia's participation is valid for the duration of the programme (i.e. until 31 December 2000). �