Days after last week's European Council decision on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), Europe's future budget, the picture is becoming clearer on funds available for European research in the Horizon 2020 programme. The figures have emerged not from any official announcement, but from a series of tweets and Q&As with official EU spokespersons that indicate the extreme political sensitivity of the subject.
The budget figures – a mixed picture
Of the total European budget of €908 billion, €125 billion is dedicated to section 1a, on growth and competitiveness. Just under €71 billion of this sum is allocated to the Horizon 2020 programme, said Michael Jennings, spokesman for EU Research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. This represents a net increase on the €55 billion of its predecessor, the Seventh Framework Programme or FP7, as President Van Rompuy said in the European Council last week. But it is still well short of the European Commission's proposed budget for the programme of €80 billion.
Contrary to the fears of some leading industrialists and academicians last week, the €71 billion total does not include the €12.8 billion allocated to the three major infrastructure projects of the global positioning system Galileo, the ITER fusion project and the earth observation system Copernicus (formerly GMES). These funds – €6.3 billion for Galileo, €2.7 billion for ITER and € 3.8 billion for Copernicus – fall outside the Horizon 2020 budget, according to Jennings' office.
Another fear raised by last week's Council meeting was which budget line would be used for the €30 billion proposed for the Connecting Europe facility. However Ryan Heath, spokesman for the Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes, confirmed to Science|Business on Monday that the Connecting Europe budget is ring-fenced separately from the Horizon 2020 budget. The final figures agreed by the European Council for Connecting Europe are €23 billion for transport, €5.6 billion for energy and just €1 billion for digital services.
The €1 billion figure for digital represents another blow to the Commission, which had originally proposed €9 billion, then €7 billion for this area to fund the expansion of Europe-wide broadband and digital services such as e-procurement and e-invoicing. “Seven billion euros would have enabled us to leverage up to €70 billion into broadband with outside investment,” said Heath. “That seventy will become zero thanks to the decision. Now there's no money for broadband, so yes, we are disappointed.”
European Parliament reaction
Europe's research sector now awaits the vote in the European Parliament, and the outlook is stormy. The four biggest groupings of MEPs issued an immediate statement when the overall budget was announced last Friday, saying they will not accept the MFF as presented, and some are organising for a secret ballot on the budget (permissible if over 20 per cent of members ask for it) in order to better resist the influence of the Council.
“How the Horizon 2020 money will be allocated between the three pillars and different research priorities, we do not know yet,” said MEP Edit Herczog of the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) committee of the Parliament, rapporteur for the MFF. “The research community needs to stay loud. Your opinions are important – you need to make yourselves heard in the coming months, too. The competition for this money will just become tougher and tougher until the final decisions are made.”
Risk of political stand-off
One of the most disturbing possible outcomes is the likelihood of substantial delay following a political stand-off between the European Council and the Parliament. Should MEPs stand firm on their stated decision to reject the MFF as it stands now, the result will be months of uncertainty about European research spending.
Piling on the pressure, in addition to rejecting the MFF, the four main political groups said in their statement that they will call for increased use of qualified majority voting, and the ability to revise the financial framework in two or three years. “We don't accept an austerity budget for seven years,” the statement said.
MEPs also plan to use the issue to lobby for a European budget based on direct per-capita taxation rather than the present basis of national contributions, a cause which is dear to their hearts. Finally, they say, “We cannot accept a budget based solely on the priorities of the past. We must maintain support for future-oriented policies, strengthening European competitiveness and research.”
If the MFF becomes a game of political football between the two institutions, the resulting back and forth could go on until the Autumn, and it could be the end of the year before budget decisions are finalised. Horizon 2020's start date of 1 Jan 2014 is looking increasingly precarious.
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