The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, published on December, 19th, 2008, Decision Nº 1298/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of December, 16th, 2008, establishing the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 Action Programme for the enhancement of quality in higher education and the promotion of intercultural understanding through cooperation with third countries, which replaces Erasmus Mundus Action Programme for the period 2004-2008.

The European Parliament adopted on October 2008 the Erasmus Mundus Action Programme (2009-2013), which has now been published in the OJEU. The Programme aims to promote European higher education, to help improve and enhance the career prospects of students and to promote intercultural understanding through cooperation with third countries, in accordance with EU external policy objectives in order to contribute to the sustainable development of third countries in the field of higher education.

Furthermore, the Programme involves a series of specific objectives which are:

• To promote structured cooperation between higher education institutions and to promote an offer of high quality in higher education with a distinct European added value, attractive both within the European Union and beyond its borders, with a view to creating centres of excellence.
• To contribute to the mutual enrichment of societies by developing the qualifications of men and women so that they possess appropriate skills, particularly as regards the labour market, and are open-minded and internationally experienced, through promoting mobility both for the most talented students and academics from third countries to obtain qualifications and/or experience in the European Union and for the most talented European students and academics towards third countries.
• To contribute towards the development of human resources and the international cooperation capacity of higher education institutions in third countries through increased mobility streams between the European Union and third countries.
• To improve accessibility and enhance the profile and visibility of European higher education in the world as well as its attractiveness for third-country and European nationals.

These objectives will be developed through three actions, which include:

1. Erasmus Mundus joint programmes (masters and doctoral programmes) of outstanding academic quality, including a scholarship scheme.
2. Erasmus Mundus partnerships between European and third-country higher education institutions as a basis for structured cooperation, exchange and mobility at all levels of higher education, including a scholarship scheme.
3. Promotion of European higher education through measures enhancing the attractiveness of Europe as an educational destination and a centre of excellence at world level.

The programme also provides for technical support measures including studies, meetings of experts as well as information and publications directly linked to the achievement of the objectives of the programme.

Following the provisions of this Decision support for the referred actions may be granted to higher education institutions; students in higher education, at all levels, including doctoral candidates; post-doctoral researchers; academics; higher education staff; other public or private bodies active in the field of higher education under national law and practice; enterprises; as well as research centres.

The programme will be open to the participation of EU Member States, EFTA countries which are members of the EEA, the candidate countries which have a pre-accession strategy, the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as the Swiss Confederation, provided that a bilateral agreement foreseeing its participation is concluded with that country.

The Commission will, in cooperation with the Member States, ensure overall consistency and complementarity with other relevant Community policies, instruments and actions, in particular with the Lifelong Learning Programme, the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, development policy, external cooperation programmes, the ACP Association Agreements and the European Fund for the Integration of third country nationals. Commission will also ensure appropriate information, publicity and follow-up with regard to actions supported by the programme, in coordination with Member States.

Budget

According to this Decision the financial envelope for the implementation of Actions 1 and 3 and related technical support measures for the 2009-2013 period is set at EUR 493 690 000; and the financial envelope for the implementation of Action 2 and related technical support measures is set in accordance with the rules, procedures and objectives laid down in Regulation (EC) Nº 1085/2006, Regulation (EC) Nº 1638/2006, Regulation (EC) Nº 1905/2006, Regulation (EC) Nº 1934/2006, the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement and the Internal ACP-EC Agreement.