Brussels, 25/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - After some five months of talks, the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission reached agreement on Tuesday 25 June on the outlines of the European Union's new framework programme for research and innovation for 2014-2020, known as Horizon 2020. The budget still needs to be decided because it depends on the outcome of the inter-institutional talks on the multiannual financial framework, but almost everyone is delighted with the compromise, the final version of which managed to be all things to all people.
“This is a very important step that will help ensure that Horizon 2020 can launch as planned next year. The package will now be submitted to both the Council and to the European Parliament, where it will be brought forward to a plenary session of the European Parliament”, said EU Research and Innovation Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn.
The introduction of the option to have real costs reimbursed was the most controversial aspect of the negotiations, and the battle was finally won by the member states and the European Commission, whose initial model won out, namely getting rid of this option (that existed in the previous R&D programme, FP7), replacing it with a simplified model - reimbursement of 100% of direct costs and up to 20% of indirect costs. The Commission suggested a compromise for projects involving large infrastructure, whereby some of the indirect costs can be counted as direct costs (see EUROPE 10856).
Despite losing a battle particularly close to the heart of the rapporteur on Horizon 2020 membership rules, Christian Edler (EPP, Germany), the European Parliament is pleased that it has won its way in other areas. Rapporteur on the Horizon 2020 Regulation, Teresa Riera Madurell (S&D, Spain), stressed the importance of expanding participation, making it mandatory, for the first time, to provide open access to scientific publications resulting from research supported by the framework programme, ensuring a clear and ambitious budget for research and innovation in renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, and for small businesses too, and building on the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Programme. When the deal was announced, she commented that it “was the best deal possible with a Council that is still dominated by an austerity-driven mentality.”
The ALDE Group is particularly happy with the earmarking of a substantial budget for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for which there will be a separate budget. The Greens/EFA is unhappy that not enough cash has been allocated because, although 20% of the total funding has been allocated to small businesses, this is not binding. Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, the group's spokesman for research, said the compromise didn't reflect the aims that the European Parliament's committee wanted to give it because the budget is combined with a financing model that will hugely increase the proportion of public money in each programme (compared with the FP7), but will reduce the total number of projects, and industry's research programmes get generous finance (125% of direct costs), ignoring the state aid rules and with few requirements in terms of access to the results of the research or policy objectives, he explained in a press release published after the agreement was reached. (JK/transl.fl)