The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), published in July 30th, the Decision 743/2008/CE of the European Parliament and the Council, of July 9th, establishing the Community’s participation in a research and development programme called Eurostars, undertaken by several Member States and aimed at supporting research and development performing small and medium-sized enterprises. The financial support will not exceed 100 M€.

The European Parliament and the Council have established that in implementing the Seventh Framework Programme the Community will make a financial contribution to the Eurostars Joint Programme amounting to the equivalent of a maximum of one third of the effective contributions of the participating Member States and the other participating countries, within a ceiling of EUR 100 million for the duration of the Seventh Framework Programme. The Community financial contribution will be paid from the appropriation in the general budget of the European Union allocated to the ‘Research for the benefit of SMEs’ part of the Specific Programme ‘Capacities’.

A maximum of 4,5 % of the Community financial contribution will be used by the dedicated implementation structure to contribute to the overall operational costs of the Eurostars Joint Programme.

The arrangements for the Community financial contribution and the rules relating to financial liability and intellectual property rights as well as the detailed rules for the provision of financial support by the dedicated implementation structure to third parties will be established by means of a general agreement to be concluded between the Commission, on behalf of the Community, and the dedicated implementation structure, and annual financing agreements.

The Eurostars Joint Programme will be supported by the following participating countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well as Iceland, Israel, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, as other participating countries.

The Decision will enter into force August 2nd, 2008.

Objectives of the Programme

The Eurostars Joint Programme aims to support such R & D performing SMEs by:

• Creating an easily accessible and sustainable European R & D support mechanism for them.
• Encouraging them to create new economic activities based on R & D results and bring new products, processes and services to the market faster than would otherwise be possible.
• Promoting their technological and business development and internationalisation.

The Eurostars Joint Programme will complement existing national and European Union programmes aimed at supporting R & D performing SMEs in their innovation process.

It will also contribute to European competitiveness, innovation, employment, economic change, sustainable development and environmental protection, and help to achieve the Lisbon and Barcelona objectives. It will support, through its bottom-up approach, research, development and demonstration activities carried out by trans-national consortia driven by R & D performing SMEs and cooperating where appropriate with research organisations and/or large enterprises.

The Eurostars Joint Programme is aimed at aligning and synchronising the relevant national research and innovation programmes to establish a joint programme, featuring scientific, management and financial integration, marking an important contribution towards the realisation of the European research Area (ERA).