Meeting on Friday 7 October, the Deputy Ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper 1) approved draft EU Council conclusions generally welcoming the report of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on measures to widen participation in the European research framework programmes Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe (see EUROPE 12972/19).
According to the draft conclusions, the Council takes note of the ECA’s finding that Member States need to make national investments and reforms of national research and innovation systems.
The Council notes the ECA’s recommendation to strengthen and extend the use of the Policy Support Facility and encourages dialogues on a voluntary basis between Member States and the European Commission to improve investment and reform. It calls on the Commission to evaluate, by identifying relevant indicators, the effectiveness of the measures already in place to widen participation and to evaluate new initiatives, should existing measures prove ineffective.
Furthermore, the Council calls on the Member States and the Commission to simplify the implementation of complementary funding and to reduce delays. The Commission is encouraged to support the beneficiaries of widening measures in the valorisation of their research results.
Finally, the Council would like the ECA report to be taken into account by the Commission when implementing measures to widen participation or when developing measures in the context of the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe and when preparing the next EU research framework programme.
Coreper recommends that the Council adopt these conclusions as an A item (without debate).
Link to the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/3hp (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)