OBJECTIVE: within the framework of the pre-accession strategy, to open up the Community's Socrates, Leonardo and Youth for Europe programmes to Lithuania for the period 1998 to 2000.
COMMUNITY MEASURE: Council Decision 98/642/EC adopting the conditions and procedures for the participation of Lithuania in the Community programmes in the field of training, education and youth.
SUBSTANCE: Decision 2/98 by the EC-Lithuania Association Council lays down the conditions and procedures for Lithuania's participation in the three Community programmes in the field of education and youth.
In particular, Lithuania:
- 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 the three programmes.
This will cover the subsidies and other financial aid provided to Lithuanian participants under the three programmes, the additional administrative costs imputable to the management of the programme by the Commission and financial support for the operation of the national agency managing the programmes.
This contribution varies according to the programme and will be paid annually.
To some extent, the Community will contribute to these contributions by deducting the necessary amounts from the annual financial allocation to PHARE/Lithuania. 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 Lithuania's national budget.
In total, this financial contribution amounts to ECU 5 141 600 for the two years concerned (of which ECU 3 753 100 comes under PHARE).
Lithuania 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 November 1998. Lithuania's participation is valid for the duration of the programme (i.e. until 31 December 2000).
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