On Wednesday 28 January, during an initial exchange of views, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) agreed on the need to separate the Horizon Europe framework programme from the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF).
For the regulation’s rapporteur, Christian Ehler (EPP, German), the European Commission’s initial proposal is “unfinished” and “too many crucial points are unclear”. Presented in July with a budget doubled to €175 billion (see EUROPE 13683/7), the proposal had already caused concern among MEPs (see EUROPE 13732/13). “Nobody seems to know how this should work. And it’s fairly astonishing if you ask any commissioner for the moment where the Horizon programme would actually be in this ECF governance – you can’t find any commissioner, at least I couldn’t, who could tell you”, lamented Mr Ehler. Many colleagues shared the same opinion, including Lina Gálvez (S&D, Spanish). “Governance and the relationship between the European Competitiveness Fund and Horizon Europe, the tenth framework programme [...]: are links that need to be clarified and well designed to be beneficial both for research and innovation, but also for our competitiveness”, she added.
René Repasi (S&D, German), rapporteur for the implementation programme, supported the reduction in red tape in the proposal, but felt that this was not the source of growth. In his view, growth comes from innovation, and Horizon Europe can be made more efficient by how it is designed. “Of course, as politicians have to think of innovation as ecosystems, and we have to make clear that research money leads to success successful startup creations, but then also to successful scale ups that remain in Europe and don’t cross the ocean once they are successful”, he said.
He also referred to dual use, both civil and military, saying that any expansion towards this “may not undermine the essence of research, which is open science, transparency and collaboration across borders”, and that “dual use adds to it, but doesn’t undermine it”.
Following this exchange, the ITRE Committee received Nicodemos Damianou, Cypriot Deputy Minister for Research and Innovation, who presented the priorities of the Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13781/12). Eszter Lakos MEP (EPP, Hungarian) voiced her concerns about the EU Council’s negotiations on the future Horizon Europe framework programme under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034 (see EUROPE 13782/14). She expressed concerns that the discussions were taking place in the MFF Output Working Party and not in the Research Working Party. “This is a matter that we take good note of (...) We are aware of the issue”, replied Mr Damianou. He gave assurances that the Presidency is ready to facilitate the discussions. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)