Brussels, 26/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 September, the European Parliament's industry, research and energy committee (ITRE) approved the interinstitutional agreement on the framework programme for research and innovation 2014-2020 (Horizon 2020), which was obtained at the end of June (see EUROPE 10874). The final vote in the Parliament's plenary session and at the Council of the EU will take place as soon as an agreement is reached on the multiannual financial framework (MFF 2014-2020).
The Parliament's negotiators are far from having obtained all their demands over the course of the trilogue, but they welcomed the fact today that the final result contains “several major improvements in the programme's structure and funding instruments”. This should enable the programme to be “much more geared towards funding innovation” with a “bottom-up approach of the programme considerably strengthened” and “a thorough simplification of the rules of participation”, said the rapporteur, Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany), after the vote. This is a cocktail that “will thus attract many innovative newcomers”, he hopes. (JK/transl.fl)