During a plenary debate at the European Parliament on Wednesday 18 October on the new ‘European Innovation Agenda’ (see EUROPE 12986/15), Christian Elher (EPP, German) regretted the Council of the EU’s intention to cut funding for research and innovation (R&I) as part of the EU’s annual budget. He deplored a sort of annual ritual.
Without investment in R&I that enables technology and innovation to be used as comparative advantages for the European economy, the MEP fears that Europe will not be able to meet its climate objectives or general European societal goals.
However, Mr Elher noted that the EU had not achieved the target of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to investment in R&I, and that the EU’s framework programmes for R&I were also suffering from under-investment.
In its first two years of operation, the MEP estimated that Horizon Europe would have needed an additional €34 billion to fund all the excellence proposals, and that Europe was not investing enough in early research.
According to Christian Elher, €200 billion is needed to finance the EU’s next R&I framework programme.
The European Commissioner for Research, Iliana Ivanova, acknowledged that the EU could not compete in the global arena without mobilising an adequate budget, and that more funding was needed.
She felt that the EU had all the ingredients to excel (talent and skills, excellent research centres, a dynamic ecosystem, investors and an industrial base), but that these instruments needed to be better matched and that the EU needed to exploit their full potential.
The Commissioner noted the initiatives launched since the launch of the new ‘European Innovation Agenda’.
She also announced that the European Commission was working on a European approach to technological infrastructures, including a study and a group of experts.
Finally, the Commissioner announced that a report would be drawn up in 2024 on the implementation of the Agenda in order to identify areas for improvement. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)