Subcommittee No 5 on Innovation

In 1964, in accordance with the Türkiye- EU Association Council Decision No. 3/64, Türkiye- EU Association Committee has been established to support the activities of the Association Council and to foster the cooperation stemming from partnership relations.

After the recognition of Türkiye as a candidate country at Helsinki Summit on 11-12 December 1999, on 11 April 2000, 8 subcommittees, which do not have any decision making power, have been established by the Association Council Decision No. 3/2000. Subcommittee No.5 on Innovation was one of the subcommittees, set up under the Association Committee to monitor and evaluate the EU harmonization process as well as to sustain exchange of information among sector experts under the framework of negotiation chapters-oriented approach. In this regard, the main agenda items under the Subcommittee No.5 were determined as science, research, information society, media, education and youth.

In the meantime, Türkiye and the European Commission jointly decided that the subcommittee meetings shall be restructured as on the basis of the opening and closing benchmarks of the negotiation Chapters in order to be more efficient and result-oriented. Under this framework, it was decided that the following Chapters and the developments thereof shall constitute the main agenda items under the Subcommittee No.5; 10-Information Society and Media, 25-Science and Research, 26-Education and Culture.

Moreover, taking into the account the experience accumulated over the past years’ subcommittee meetings, a “new approach” has been adopted to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the meetings. The intention of the “new approach” is to devote more time to actually discussing issues in detail during the subcommittee meetings instead of using the time for making long and detailed presentations. During the preparation phase of the meeting, background detailed presentations for each agenda item, providing the latest information, will be shared by the parties. In line with the information acquired from the presentations, each side will be able to ask their questions and comprehensively focus on technical side of the agenda items.    According to the new approach, the discussions during the meetings will be more fruitful and the time allocated for each agenda item will be used more efficiently.

In line with this new approach, the Subcommittee No.5 on Innovation was held online on 28-29 March 2023.