09/01/2019 (Agence Europe) – The European Parliament and the Council of the EU would have considered, as early as the first interinstitutional meeting (trilogue) on the Horizon Europe framework programme on Wednesday 9 January, adding a new interinstitutional meeting to the four already planned. Thus, the next trilogue meeting scheduled would be on 29 January next, followed by another on 21 February and a fourth on 12 March. The European Parliament would have asked to bring forward the February meeting by a week and there would have been talk of adding a 5th trialogue after 12 March. There are many nodes to disentangle, such as participation in the programme (widening versus excellence), the structure of thematic poles (clusters), defence and ethical issues. As a reminder, the Council has not adopted its position on the specific programme (see EUROPE 12151), whereas the European Parliament wishes to make progress on both texts at the same time. (PH)