MEPs press budget committee to join the fight for FP10

The fight to have a standalone Framework Programme for research and innovation after 2027 has been taken up by members of the European Parliament’s budgets committee. They have tabled amendments to a draft report on the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) that argue for the creation of a tenth Framework Programme (FP10) and against the incorporation of research and innovation funding into a proposed Competitiveness Fund.

While the latest draft of the report proposes a significant increase in research and innovation funding, it makes no mention of a standalone Framework Programme. This is despite one of its co-rapporteurs, Siegfried Mureşan of the European People’s Party (EPP), voicing support in the past for targeted EU research funding.

The amendments were made by Christian Ehler and Niclas Herbst, both EPP substitute members of the budgets committee. Their changes say that the Parliament should “absolutely oppose any proposal for the Competitiveness Fund to partly or completely take over the role” of FP10. They also say the research Framework Programme under the next MFF should have a total budget of at least €220 billion.

This mirrors the position of a report Ehler shepherded though the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee over the past few months.

Other MEPs, including Rasmus Nordqvist on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group and Karlo Ressler and Monika Hohlmeier for the EPP, used more neutral and general tones in their amendments on the topic, advocating a dedicated budget for research and innovation, or cautioning against merging EU programmes under the guise of simplification.

Victor Negrescu (S&D), former rapporteur for the 2025 budget and a current member of the budgets committee, also supports the continuation of an independent Framework Programme. 

”We need specific financial and regulatory instruments and predictability for research,” he told Science|Business. “For that, keeping and even developing the research programme is key. That is why it can be dangerous to merge financial tools together under the umbrella of competitiveness and not take into consideration the complexity of the science, research and innovation ecosystem.”

Overall, the draft report and its amenders are generous in their calls for additional spending. Greater investment is proposed for security and defence, of course, along with competitiveness, research and innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises, health, energy, critical technologies, and the digital and green transitions.

The budgets committee is scheduled to vote on the draft report in late April, with a plenary vote expected in the first week of May. The Commission is expected to present its MFF proposal in July.