DUBROVNIK DUBROVNIK, April 27 (Hina) - A ministerial conference of member states of the COST (the European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) was opened on Tuesday by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, under
whose auspices the event is taking place in Dubrovnik.
DUBROVNIK, April 27 (Hina) - A ministerial conference of member
states of the COST (the European Cooperation in the Field of
Scientific and Technical Research) was opened on Tuesday by
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, under whose auspices the event is
taking place in Dubrovnik. #L#
Addressing some 50 representatives of COST members, Mesic said that
COST programmes had played an important role in the development of
science and technology in the young Croatian state.
He recalled that Croatia had been admitted into the COST, the oldest
European framework for scientific cooperation, in June 1992,
immediately after it had gained political independence. At the
time, the country faced difficulties in joining in scientific and
technological processes and programmes of developed European
countries because of both subjective and objective political
circumstances, he said.
COST membership discontinued the political and territorial
isolation imposed on Croatia, he added.
Admission into the COST, the organisation established in 1971 which
gathers 34 member-countries, was in a way the continuation of
participation in that programme as before gaining independence
Croatia had taken part in COST programmes as one of the republics of
the former Yugoslav federation, Mesic said.
The president said his country fully accepted the basic principles
of the COST such as openness, freedom of choice of actions, respect
for national priorities, and the decentralisation of finances as
well as joint co-ordinated activities.
According to Mesic, Croatia has caught up with Europe in the field
of science and research, but there is still much room for
cooperation in the field of technology transfer and development.
Croatia possesses scientific, technological and human resources to
achieve this goal and its scientific and technological tradition is
a guarantee that this objective will be accomplished with the
assistance of COST programmes, Mesic said.
The participants in the Dubrovnik conference were greeted by
Romania's President Ion Iliescu, who said that science was the
foundation for the development of the Old Continent.
Iliescu believes that Europe can again become the leading global
power in science. He added that Romania would continue cooperating
in European science programmes thus contributing to efforts to
counter the brain-drain.
The COST conference, which pooled eight European science
ministers, mostly from transition countries, was organised by
Croatia's science and technology ministry.
(hina) ms