Proposal to cut funding for the future Horizon Europe programme

4.12.2019

Question for written answer E-004205/2019
to the Commission
Rule 138
Lídia Pereira (PPE), José Manuel Fernandes (PPE), Maria da Graça Carvalho (PPE), Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar (PPE)

Horizon 2020 is the largest programme supporting science and innovation in the world. The added value it represents, which makes the European economy more competitive, is widely acknowledged. As a result, the difficult negotiations on the Union’s general budget for 2020 led to an 8.8% increase in funding for this programme. The Commission has also proposed increasing the financial envelope of the Horizon Europe programme, which is the successor to H2020, by EUR 20 billion in the next multiannual financial framework. Parliament has already committed to supporting this increase and has even proposed taking the total budget up to EUR 120 billion.

It was recently reported that the Presidency of the Council of the European Union proposed a compromise for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 that significantly reduces overall funding and hence funding for Horizon Europe. A possible cut of EUR 12 billion is totally wrong at a time when we should be responding to the expected economic slowdown with ambition and adapting European industry to the challenges of the digital revolution.

Can the Commission guarantee that, in the course of the negotiations, it will at least defend its initial proposal?