Horizon Europe sign-off ‘sends signal’ to EU budget negotiators

The agreement on Horizon Europe sends “a strong signal to negotiators” for the EU’s broad, long-term financial plan, Moedas told the committee meeting. “Our task now is to defend our budget,” he said.

The outline for Horizon Europe thrashed out by MEPs and governments puts a greater focus on innovation and initiatives to help poorer countries compete for money. The entire Parliament will now vote on the deal on April 17, before it breaks up for the May elections.

The Commission proposes €94.1 billion for Horizon Europe – due to launch in 2021 – up from €77 billion for the current research programme, Horizon 2020.

Before the money can be finalised, member states need to reach unanimous agreement on the overall 2021-2027 spending in the multinational financial framework (MFF). That is unlikely to happen before the end of 2019 at the earliest.

The Parliament wants to increase the Horizon Europe budget to €120 billion. “We are ambitious. You see that we want to reflect the digital revolution, we want to go big on quantum, and we want to go big on artificial intelligence. We also have answers for the climate protesters on the street,” said Christian Ehler MEP.

His appeal to politicians is, “don’t lose this ambition in September or October” when the MFF budget is being negotiated between governments. Historically, he said, it has always been a fight to convince member states to honour research spending commitments.

So far, member states do not appear particularly receptive to increasing the EU budget. Countries that are net contributors, like Sweden, France and Germany, need convincing that spending more on the EU will be worth it for them.

Another obstacle for the research is competition for funds from farmers and poorer regions, two big recipients of EU money. The European Commission’s proposal last year to cut agriculture subsidies and reduce cohesion funding for eastern member states was met with howls of disapproval in some quarters.

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