After a first interinstitutional meeting (trilogue) earlier this month (see EUROPE 12575/24), negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the regulation establishing Horizon Europe – the EU’s 2021-2027 framework programme for research and innovation – now appear to have stalled.
This is what Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany), rapporteur on the EU Council decision on the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe, said at a press conference on Tuesday 27 October.
“The aim was to have, next week or the week after, a second or even a conclusive trilogue. To be honest, it’s not really the case anymore”, Mr Ehler lamented.
No date has yet been set for a new trilogue, an institutional source confirmed to EUROPE.
Negotiations are mainly focused on the question of the budget to be allocated to the programme. On the EU Council side, Member States have come to terms with the budget cuts agreed by EU leaders last July (see EUROPE 12570/1), setting the bar at €80.9 billion in 2018 prices.
The MEPs call for a budget of €120 billion (see EUROPE 12572/18). Without massive investment in research, the EU’s economic recovery, the development of its e-skills and green credentials and the strengthening of its competitiveness will remain a dead letter, they argue.
For Mr Ehler, it is now clear that Parliament will have to give up its ambition of investing 3% of EU GDP in research (compared to the current 2.06%). However, the minimum acceptable to the rapporteur would be to return to the European Commission's original proposal: a budget of €94.4 billion (see EUROPE 12532/6).
But “the Council said that it was still not in a position to make adjustments and that no basis for negotiation could be found”, Mr Ehler deplored.
Progress on this dossier in the EU Council remains dependent on the ongoing negotiations on the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and, in particular, on the question of increasing the number of 15 EU flagship programmes, including Horizon Europe (see EUROPE 12589/6).
“As long as the Council’s negotiators on Horizon Europe have not received instructions from the negotiators on the MFF, their position will not change”, an institutional source told EUROPE, pointing out that other issues remained to be settled.
Mr Ehler stressed that this second trilogue should also be an opportunity to address some outstanding issues concerning the conditions for the association of non-Member States with Horizon Europe. In particular, the definitions of the four distribution categories for these countries still need to be clarified.
To accede to category A, for example, “it has not yet been decided whether membership of the European Economic Area would be a precondition”, the rapporteur explained. Finally, the remaining uncertainty about British participation in the programme adds to the difficulty. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)