Chaired by Jozef Roskar from Slovenia, ECMWF's Advisory Committee of Co-operating States (ACCS), on the invitation by the Director of the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service, Ivan Cacic, held its 13th session in Zagreb (Croatia) on Friday, 26 October 2007.
The Committee drew up opinions and recommendations to the Council on several strategic and financial matters, such as the Centre's programme of activities for the period 2008-2011 and the budget for the year 2008.
The Committee noted the status of the ratification process of the amended Convention in the Member States. Representatives of the Co-operating States confirmed that their governments would apply for ECMWF membership as soon as the amended Convention comes into force which will allow accession of new Member States.
Since the entry into force of the Convention in 1975, ECMWF concluded co-operation agreements with 10 States, namely Iceland ( December 1980), Hungary (July 1994), Croatia (December 1995), Slovenia (June 1997), Czech Republic (August 2001), Serbia (January 2003), Romania (December 2003), Estonia (November 2005), Lithuania (November 2006), Morocco (December 2006).
Co-operating States are given access to ECMWF real-time products, archive data, and software tools, as well as access to the training facilities of ECMWF.