ISSN 1022-6559 17 May 1999 Based on information from the CORDIS databases available on the Web at http://www.cordis.lu/ HOW CAN THE CANDIDATE COUNTRIES PARTICIPATE IN FP5? The European Commission is often asked to clarify exactly how the candidate countries are associated with the Fifth RTD Framework Programme (FP5), so what exactly is a country, and how can they get involved in FP5? The candidate countries in question are among those the next few months. This process is separate for each which have requested membership of the European Un- agreement and depends on procedures in both the EU and ion, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ilun- the country concerned (which may involve parliamentary gary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and approval). On the EU side, the European Parliament ap-Slovenia, each of which submitted their requests for proved all of the agreements on 14 April 1999, which will membership of the EU between 1994 and 1996. Cyprus allow the Council to complete the EU side of the procedure is also a candidate for membership of the EU, having at the Research Council meeting on 20 May 1999. submitted its request in 1990.