MEPs adopt long-term budget report with €200 billion for next Horizon Europe

The European Parliament’s budget committee has adopted an interim report and compromise amendments calling for a stronger, predictable EU budget from 2028. This includes a larger pot for the next Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, at €200 billion.

The text on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), co-authored in the budget committee by Carla Tavares of the Socialists and Democrats group and Siegfried Mureşan of the European People’s Party, was approved on April 15, passing with 26 votes in favour, nine against and five abstentions. It will now pass to a vote by the whole Parliament.

The report puts forward an average 10% increase in the MFF budget over the European Commission’s proposal, to be allocated evenly across its three headings. “We think 10% is a reasonable, justified increase, because we expect Europe to do more for our security, for our defence, to improve the competitiveness of our economy but at the same time, we do not want to weaken the traditional priorities of the Union, which have proven their viability in time,” Mureşan told MEPs prior to the vote.

This implies dedicating €200 billion for the next Horizon Europe, up from €175 billion proposed by the Commission in current prices, or €155 billion when adjusted for inflation over the seven years of the MFF. Similarly, it would mean another €42 billion to the Erasmus+ student mobility programme, close to the Commission’s proposed €40.8 billion.

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The vote in the budget committee was originally scheduled for April 8, a deferment which Mureşan attributed to the high number of amendments and opinions received on the report. “We wanted to put forward a position which is well justified, which is articulate, which is realistic in size,” he said at the press conference. “But this is in no way a delay. We’re going to meet the very ambitious objective of voting in plenary at the end of April.”

Meanwhile, the Parliament has given rapporteurs working on specific sectors of the MFF proposal until November to conclude their readings, so that negotiations with the EU Council can begin.