Decision-time is coming: EU leaders slate key meetings over EU R&D budget

EU leaders, fresh from their summer breaks, have scheduled a few key meetings in November to start deciding the fate of the proposed €80 billion Horizon 2020 research, development and innovation programme. On one hand, the Commission and true-believer R&D supporters are pushing for at least that much money. On the other hand, with austerity dictating national policies, many EU governments will be less inclined to just give a nod – and each member-state is setting tough terms over how the money is spent, in exchange for support.

A key meeting will take place 22 November, when EU leaders have slated a special summit to discuss the EU’s overall budget for 2013 - 2018. Austerity-related cuts there would have a knock-on effect to Horizon 2020 – forcing tougher negotiations over the details of who gets how much from the R&D programme.

The European Parliament’s Research, Industry and Energy Committee (ITRE) has decided to postpone its vote on amendments for Horizon 2020 until after the EU budget summit, Maria da Graça Carvalho MEP (EPP-PT) has told Science|Business.

After that would come a plenary vote in the Parliament, and intensive budget negotiations with the Council of EU ministers. The odds favour these negotiations dragging well into the first half of next year, when the Irish hold the rotating EU Presidency. That’s lucky for the Research Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who is Irish; but the delay will mean some nail-biting by university and lab leaders waiting to get an idea of much money they can count on in future from the EU.

In his yearly State of the Union speech, Barroso yesterday challenged the member-states to act. Arguing for Horizon 2020, he said “we need this European scale for research,” while pointing to growth and jobs. “I want to see if the same member States which are all the time talking about investment and growth will now support a budget for growth at the European level,” said Barroso. This must be “a budget that will promote a research-intensive and innovative Europe through Horizon 2020,” he added.

Budget struggle

But before Horizon 2020 would be able to deliver on its promise of less red tape, broader benefits, more jobs and economic growth, it will be up to the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers to hammer out a compromise between their own versions of the Commission’s proposal – and on its ambitious budget.

Kent Johansson MEP (ALDE-SE), who follows Horizon 2020 for the liberal fraction in the European Parliament, told Science|Business he believes it is important that “we take this opportunity to invest in Europe's future by giving Horizon 2020 the proper budget it needs."

MEPs have repeatedly called for a budget of €100 billion, claiming that at least a doubling of Framework Programme 7 – Horizon 2020’s predecessor - would be needed to pay for extra programmes that will now be part of Horizon 2020.

Ministers representing the Member States in the EU Council are less ambitious however, and might even seek to lower the Commission’s initial €80 billion proposal.

Dutch Election

Officials in Brussels will have been relieved by the outcome of the much anticipated Dutch election, which took place yesterday. In a surprise result, the ruling pro-business liberal party and Dutch labour have together won an outright majority, defeating several Eurosceptic parties and the Christian Democrats.

MEP Jan Mulder (ALDE-NL), a member of the Dutch liberals who sits on the European Parliament’s budget committee, believes the new Dutch government will support the Commission’s €80 billion Horizon 2020 proposal. While Mulder is not in favour of going beyond €80 billion, he thinks the new government, which is unlikely to involve Christian Democrats, could change its position on how the EU budget is allocated. “The Dutch position on agricultural and regional subsidies could change in favour of innovation,” he told Science|Business.

Progress

The European Parliament has already released draft reports on all six elements of the Commission’s Horizon 2020 proposals - and put forward thousands of amendments. The Council on the other hand is yet to make its views known.

A spokesperson for the EU Council told Science|Business the Council will, “of course pay particular attention to the positions of the European Parliament on all files,” explaining that the Council uses a “sequential working method” instead of the Parliament’s approach of treating the Horizon 2020 scheme as one package.

Before the summer, under the Danish Presidency, the Council reached consensus on what it called a “partial general approach” to the Horizon 2020 legislation – one of six legislative proposals related to Horizon 2020. At that meeting in May, the Council also took note of a progress report on three of the other proposals.

Marianna Karageorgis, a spokesperson for the Cyprus Presidency, told Science|Business the presidency is working “intensively in order to advance the negotiation process in the Council by presenting compromise proposals.” The aim is “to find acceptable solutions on the different files of the Horizon 2020 package,” she said Karageorgis indicated the Council will try to start negotiations with the European Parliament “at a technical level”, in an attempt to “ease the way to an agreement later on.”

Amendments

After the EU heads of state and governments meet at the budget summit in the last week of November, Parliament’s ITRE committee is due to adopt the final versions of six reports that outline detailed amendments of the Commission proposal for Horizon 2020.

MEPs point to ‘excellence’ as a guiding theme. This is defined as a move away from fragmentation, removing overlaps and the smoothing over the very tangible divides in the European innovation landscape.

Of all the changes from previous Framework Programmes, reducing the bureaucratic burden is the one for which there has been most clamour. The Commission has set out changes that aim to allow and encourage a broader and larger range of organisations to participate in open calls, with the promise of a simpler and more efficient process.

Beyond an acknowledged need for SMEs to start playing a more vital part in economic competitiveness and growth, the Parliament has already called for further simplification and additional measures to help ensure that SMEs have a more significant role under Horizon 2020.

In the Commission’s proposal, the entire structure of the programme has also been simplified and shaped towards three main goals: promoting excellent science, increasing industrial competitiveness, and finding answers to society’s biggest problems. While the Parliament welcomes these adjustments, MEPs remain critical of a number of the key features.

Science|Business has published a guide detailing the proposed amendments of the European Parliament and providing insights into the broader themes that are set to dominate the debate about Horizon 2020.