European ministers insisted on the central involvement of Member States in defining the priorities of the Horizon Europe framework programme for research and innovation (R&I) 2028-2034, at the ‘Research’ Council on Tuesday 9 December (see EUROPE 13763/16).
“The Member States must be centrally involved from start to finish, to ensure that they can be behind this during implementation”, said Slovenian minister lIgor Papič. “We believe that the Member States should be involved as early and as closely as possible in setting the Union’s research and innovation priorities, including European partnerships”, added the Hungarian representative, Katalin Molnár.
“Future European partnerships must be genuinely pan-European, drawing on talents and capacities across Europe, they must be created transparently, with stronger involvement of Member States and research and innovation communities”, said Poland’s Andrzej Szeptycki.
At a press conference, Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation, said that she had taken note of and listened to the Member States when saying that “they want to see their strong role in setting the strategic priorities, governance”.
Digital and green transition, health, safety and energy. It is in these areas that the ministers want to prioritise European research funding. “We need to reduce fragmentation in areas like artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and digital infrastructures”, said Romanian Secretary of State Andrei Alexandru.
A number of ministers brought up biotechnologies and bioproduction, particularly in relation to health. “The Covid crisis showed how defenceless we can be, its lasting impact on almost every sector of our society. Combined with democratic changes and rising healthcare costs, this makes health innovation a strategic question”, stressed Kristina Kallas, the Estonian Minister. “Europe must invest in prevention, in digital health solutions, and in resilient health systems”.
While Spain, Croatia and Italy brought up the ITER nuclear fusion project, France mentioned new low-carbon energies. As for Finland and Romania, they indicated their interest in dual-use technologies, both civil and military. Greece and Sweden also cited advanced materials as a priority.
Link with the European Competitiveness Fund. Several ministers have called for this to be clarified. “Italy appreciates the proposed synergy with the European Competitiveness Fund, but insists that the specific features of these two programmes must be preserved, to ensure that collaborative research is not sacrificed”, stressed Marco Canaparo, Italy’s representative. “Horizon Europe must also retain its autonomy, with a programme dedicated to research and innovation”.
However, the ministers welcomed the way in which the two programmes are coordinated and complementary (see EUROPE 13735/23).
It will be the turn of the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, which takes up its mandate on Thursday 1 January, to make progress on this dossier, based on the conclusions of this debate.
To read the progress report: https://aeur.eu/f/js6 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)