The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF [1]) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states.

ECMWF and Météo-France have jointly developed the IFS-ARPEGE codes for global NWP since 1987 and have agreed access and use of these codes for limited-area NWP by National Meteo-Hydrological Services Members of ALADIN and HIRLAM Consortia (agreement amended in July 2006, available as Annex I in ACCORD MoU).