Professional training and education: participation of Bulgaria to Leonardo and Socrates programmes

PURPOSE: adoption of the terms and conditions for the participation of Bulgaria in Community programmes in the fields of vocational training and education. COMMUNITY MEASURE: Decision 2/99 of the Association Council between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Bulgaria, of the other part, adopting the terms and conditions for the participation of Bulgaria in Community programmes in the fields of education and vocational training. CONTENT: Bulgaria shall participate in the Community programmes Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in Annexes 1 and 2 to this Decision. The Decision applies for the duration of the Leonardo and Socrates programmes. Annex 1 lays down the terms and conditions for participation in the 2 programmes such as: - Submission, assessment and selection of applications by eligible institutions, organisations and individuals of Bulgaria shall be the same as for their respective Community counterparts; - Language preparation and vocational training activities concern the official languages of the Community. In exceptional circumstances, other languages could be accepted if the implementation of the programme so requires. - To ensure the Community dimension of the programmes, transnational projects and activities proposed by Bulgaria will be required to include a minimum number of partners from the Member States. This minimum number will be decided in the framework of the implementation of the programmes, taking into account the nature of the various activities, the number of partners in a given project and the number of countries participating in the programmes. - Bulgaria is to lay down the appropriate and mechanisms at national level and will take all other necessary steps to ensure national co-ordination and organisation of the implementation of the programmes. - Bulgaria is to pay each year a contribution to the Community budget to cover the costs resulting from its participation in the programmes (specific details laid down in Annex 2). - Member States and Bulgaria will make every effort within the framework of the existing provisions, to facilitate the free movement and residence of students, teachers, university administrators and other eligible persons moving between Bulgaria and the Member States for the purpose of participating in activities covered by this Decision. - Bulgaria will be invited to co-ordination meetings on any question relating to the implementation of this Decision prior to the regular meetings of the relevant programme committees. Annex 2 deals with the financial contribution of Bulgaria to the Leonardo and Socrates programmes. Bulgaria's financial contribution will cover: - subsidies or any other financial support from the programmes to Bulgarian participants; - financial support from the Leonardo programme to the functioning of the national agency; - supplementary administrative costs related to the management of the programmes by the Commission stemming from Bulgaria's participation. The Annex also specifies the level of Bulgaria's annual financial contributions to the Leonardo and Socrates programmes for 1999. Part of the annual contribution comes from Bulgaria's national budget and the other part comes from Bulgaria's Phare national programme of 1999.�