Recommendation 13 of the White Paper reads as follows:
Functional STI policy dialogue fora between the EU and EECA countries should be further advanced:
It is suggested to policy stakeholders from EU MS, the European Commission, and EECA countries to assess present formats of STI policy dialogue among both regions in order to identify options for the dialogue to become more efficient and effective as well as to increase the active participation of the countries in both regions in such policy dialogue fora. In addition, it is recommended to these stakeholders to support the generation of the needed knowledge base in order to ensure the best information. It is proposed to the European Commission to further support Coordination and Support Actions facilitating functional bi-regional fora for S&T policy dialogue, most prominently the INCO-NET and BILAT scheme.
At the moment, STI policy dialogue among the two regions is systematically taking place either between individual EU Member States and EECA countries our between the European Commission and selected EECA countries. In order to better address the joint challenges for both regions, there seems to be room for introducing advanced mechanisms for such a functional STI policy dialogue in order to provide a floor for regular information exchange on national strategies as well as internationalisation strategies and a respective clearing house for joint ideas and activities, a coordination forum for needs, suggestions and proposals targeting, among others, various aspects which are addressed in this White Paper. Primary addressees of such a dialogue are supposed to be interested policy stakeholders to whom various discussion fora are offered. To assure an efficient dialogue it is important
to evidence the knowledge base of the participants through relevant data collection and analytical studies.
Here, one might build on the example of present Coordination and Support Actions within the EU RTD Framework Programme, namely the INCO-NET and BILAT scheme, which provide a targeted knowledge base for policy stakeholders to analyse and advance the STI cooperation.
As an additional element of such dialogues, the value of discussion forums allowing a direct interaction of policy makers with representatives of the science and innovation community and the civil society of both regions needs to be highlighted in order to provide policy stakeholders with an optimum framework for international STI cooperation.
Good practice example:
• Steering Platform on Research with the West Balkan Countries (http://www.wbc-inco.net/about/mission.html)

Some lessons learnt from the WBC region have been presented to the stakeholders of the Eastern Europe / Central Asian regions (see presentation attached).

Please note that a similar White Paper has been prepared for the South East European region in 2007. It contains valid information still after several years passed. WBC-INCO.NET is one of the activities that supported the implementation of the Joint Action Plan, which was updated in 2009.

Links to the respective documents are provided below, the documents are available from our website (please register, registration is free of charge).