The EU’s 2021-2027 framework programme for research and innovation (R&I), Horizon Europe, should, against all expectations, be able to enter into force on 1 January next (see EUROPE 12611/11).
The European Parliament and the EU Council managed to reach agreement on the details of this programme on Friday 11 December, after almost 14 hours of discussion - an outcome on which nobody would have bet.
A first partial agreement had already been concluded in March 2019. The main elements contained in the text provisionally adopted on Friday therefore concern the Horizon Europe budget, but also include its synergies with other EU programmes, international cooperation, and the association of non-Member States.
Unprecedented amounts
First of all, the trilogue made it possible to take account of the internal breakdown of Horizon Europe’s overall budget - a budget of around €95.5 billion (current prices), described as “historic” by rapporteur Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany) in an interview with EUROPE.
In particular, the aim was to determine the distribution of the €5 billion available under the Next Generation EU Recovery Fund and the additional €4 billion (“top-up”) obtained by Parliament negotiators in early November (see EUROPE 12599/2), in the context of the interinstitutional negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
While Next Generation EU will benefit exclusively from the second and third pillars of the programme - devoted to “global challenges”, “competitiveness of European industry”, and innovation - the additional €4 billion will largely benefit research (Pillar I).
An additional €1 billion has been allocated to the European Research Council, a further €314 million to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and a further €257 million to research infrastructures.
Alignment with the MFF
In addition, Horizon Europe will have the largest budget ever allocated to digital and the first ever budget for European cultural and creative industries.
This specific budget will benefit, among others, the digital ‘cloud’ project on European cultural heritage supported by Parliament. This ‘cloud’ should make it possible to store data held by European museums (archives, catalogues of works, etc.), to provide a working base for researchers and to prevent this data from falling into the hands of American digital giants.
The trilogue also allowed a compromise to be reached on the disagreement that persisted regarding the alignment of Horizon Europe’s duration with that of the multiannual financial framework.
It was decided that this alignment would be maintained. But a clause has been introduced to prevent any interruption in future funding. This would begin in 2028, for example, if the 2028-2034 MFF did not come into effect in time.
Synergies and the international dimension
Discussions also addressed the issue of synergies between Horizon Europe and other EU programmes such as InvestEU, Erasmus+, the cohesion policy, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Connecting Europe Facility, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (see EUROPE 12601/19).
The regions will be able to transfer on a voluntary basis a portion of their regional funds to Horizon Europe for use in research and innovation activities in their region.
With regard to international cooperation and the association of non-Member States, the interim agreement aims in particular to guarantee “reciprocity and the protection of the EU’s strategic interests”, according to a statement by the EU Council. The Agreement mentions, for example, respect for human rights as one of the specific criteria for the association of non-Member States.
Finally, the co-legislators introduced a clause requiring States benefiting from the programme to “respect academic freedom”.
“We don’t just want to give money, we want to protect our values”, Ehler said, although he acknowledged that he “never imagined that such a clause would still be necessary at the beginning of the 21st century”.
What happens next?
The provisionally approved agreement will be put to a vote this week in the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) - “a formality”, says the rapporteur.
On the EU Council side, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU will only analyse the text in one week’s time, on Friday 18 December.
The latter will certainly not be formally approved until after 1 January next. However, the programs will be able to start on that date, as planned. The co-legislators decided to introduce a paragraph authorising the Commission to launch its first calls for projects without waiting for their final green light. “That’s the main thing, because that’s what takes the most time. And we really didn’t want to create a gap”, concludes Christian Ehler.
On Parliament’s side, it was stressed that Christian Ehler and his colleague Dan Nica (S&D, Romania) had had to use pressure to bring the negotiations to a conclusion at this second interinstitutional meeting (trilogue).
For his part, Mr Ehler, who was negotiating an R&I framework programme for the third time, stressed that the presence and commitment of the Research Commissioner, Mariya Gabriel, “also played a decisive role in the breakthrough of the negotiations”.
For a detailed budget breakdown: https://bit.ly/344aLtb (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)