19/05/2026 (Agence Europe) – On Tuesday, 19 May, the European Parliament adopted the position of the Council of the European Union on the draft decision establishing the Research Fund for Coal and Steel after 2027 by a large majority (537 votes in favour, 17 against, and 83 abstentions) (see EUROPE 13818/5). Only consulted on this dossier, the institution approved the extension of the fund’s active period to 2034 – whereas the European Commission had proposed 2030 as the cut-off date – as well as the distribution of the annual financial budget of 120 million euros. Nevertheless, the European Parliament made its support for the proposed operational timeline conditional on “the optimization of capital disbursement during the final phase”, considering it “imperative” that the 2027–2034 funding cycle be “directly calibrated toward the deployment of breakthrough technologies in regions facing the most acute structural dependencies and transformation pressures”. See the European Parliament’s report: https://aeur.eu/f/lyp (MB)