On Wednesday 29 September, the European Commission adopted a communication on the new “European missions”. A concept presented by Commissioner for Innovation Mariya Gabriel as “one of the great novelties of the European research programme, Horizon Europe” and as a “whole new way of working”.
The European Commission has identified a total of five main tasks, each with a specific target to be achieved by 2030.
Under the first mission, the European Commission will have to help at least 150 European regions and communities to prepare for climate disruptions (extreme weather, fires, infectious diseases).
The second mission is to “improve” the lives of more than three million people living with cancer, by working on both the prevention and cure aspects of the disease and by developing solutions to improve their quality of life and access to care across the EU.
The third mission will aim to protect the aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity of 30% of the EU’s maritime area and 25,000 km of rivers - including reducing plastic waste at sea by 50%.
With the fourth mission, the European Commission will support at least 100 cities in their ambition to become climate neutral and innovative. The aim is for all other cities to follow suit by 2050.
Finally, the fifth mission, dedicated to soil remediation, is expected to lead to the creation of 100 European territories working on soil protection and restoration.
Implementation
However, when it comes to the practical implementation of these missions, everything remains to be done. The European Commission will play a coordinating role here.
The institution has appointed a head for each mission from its ranks and set up Mission Boards whose members will be selected through a call for expressions of interest, announced for autumn 2021.
The challenge for these offices will then be to succeed in mobilising the actors likely to do the work on the ground: initially national governments, their regional and local authorities, and with them research institutes, farmers, entrepreneurs, investors, etc.
“Mobilising the Member States is the first challenge facing the Commission”, said a senior European official, adding that this would involve “work at ambassadorial level, in the Council of the EU, and in its various working groups”.
Commissioner Gabriel took advantage of a meeting of research ministers on the previous day (see EUROPE 12800/4) to draw their attention to the subject.
“The heads of the Mission Boards and their members will come from all over the EU”, which should help spread the word, the same official said, adding that the Committee of the Regions would also have a key role to play.
Financing
And the European Commission will have to provide the necessary resources to these actors, not only in terms of regulation but also, in part, in financial terms.
“In part”, because funding will also have to be found by the mobilised actors from national and regional sources, says the European Commission.
For the time being, no budget has been decided for each of the missions. “This will be determined by the size of the challenge”, it said.
The only certainty is that, at European level, a maximum of 10% of the annual budget devoted to Pillar II of the Horizon Europe programme (a pillar with a budget of €53 billion in current prices for seven years) will be made available for research and innovation work carried out in the framework of the missions. And this only for the next three years.
“In concrete terms, this means that the Commission will make €1.9 billion available from the Horizon Europe programme for the period 2021-23 to start the implementation of the five missions”, the institution says.
The other major challenge ahead will be to bring the project to the attention of European citizens.
To view the Communication: https://bit.ly/3kR9Swy (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)