Faroe Islands Associate Member of the FP7

 

Today, June 3rd, a research agreement between the Faroe Islands and the European Union was signed. The agreement was signed by Faroese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Jørgen Niclasen, on behalf of the Faroes and the EU Commission’s Director-General of Research, Mr José Manuel Silva Rodriguez. This means that the Faroes are now an associate member of the 7^th Framework Programme (FP7).

 

The agreement is historical on many levels: This is the first time such an agreement is signed by the EU with a self-governing territory, and the first time that the Faroes and the EU sign an agreement on an area not covered by the framework of the existing free-trade agreement. The Faroes now have 3 agreements with the EU: A fisheries agreement, signed in 1977, a free trade agreement from 1996, and now also a research agreement.

 

‘It has taken us 6 years to finalise this agreement and I am pleased now that we have reached this goal. The agreement breaks new ground for Faroe-EU relations, and I am confident that we will obtain even closer relations with the EU in other areas. The next steps are to finalise the ECAA agreement on civil aviation, and to expand existing agreements to cover other areas such as services and education,’ said Mr Jørgen Niclasen, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered his speech before the official signing. In his speech he emphasised the importance of close relations with the EU, and that Faroese researchers will now be able to cooperate with researchers in the EU on equal terms. This will be of benefit to the Faroese and EU research communities alike and provide opportunities to conduct research of great importance for our communities.

 

After the signing, Mrs Helena Dam á Neystabø, Minister of Education, Research and Development of the Faroes, spoke on the work ahead to implement the agreement and take advantage of the opportunities provided by the agreement. Her closing statement was: ‘Even if we are small – I will do my very best to ensure, that we will not think small.’

 

Mrs Dam á Neystabø’s speech is available here.

 

Present at the signing and the subsequent reception at the Mission of the Faroes to the European Union were representatives from the European Commission as well as the EU council in addition to the Faroese Ministers, the Faroese Representative to the EU and representatives from the Faroese Research Council.