Meet the European Parliament’s industry and research committee, class of 2024

The European Parliament committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) officially confirmed EPP Polish MEP Borys Budka as its new chair this morning.

Rumors about his nomination have been swirling since the beginning of July. Last week, Parliament sources confirmed for Science|Business that Budka’s role in ITRE was agreed informally.

During its constitutive meeting today, ITRE elected Budka alongside its four vice-chairs, of which two are representatives of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, and the other two are from European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Renew Europe.

Bulgarian S&D MEP Tsvetelina Penkova was elected as first vice-chair of ITRE. Presented by her group, Penkova was the only member nominated for the position. In June, Penkova was re-elected as a member of the European Parliament for her second term. It is her third time serving on the ITRE committee.

The seat for the second vice-chair went to Italian MEP Elena Donazzan, presented by the ECR group. The election procedure for Donazzan was anything but smooth since S&D, Renew, the Greens, and the Left groups asked for a secret ballot during the voting procedure.

The reason behind the request, per the explanation given by the Greens, is “because of the criticism related to the candidate’s political history and statements related to equality.”

In early June, before being elected to the European Parliament as a member of  Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, MEP Donazzan said that mixed marriages between Catholic women and Muslim men favour terrorists, as reported by Italian news agency ANSA.

However, Donazzan won the election with 47 votes in favor, 24 against, and 17 abstentions.

For the third vice-chair position, S&D presented Italian Giorgio Gori as candidate, while French Julie Rechagneux run on behalf of the Patriots for Europe group (PfE). The committee elected MEP Gori with 66 votes.

Finally, Belgian entrepreneur Yvan Verougstraete (Renew) was voted as fourth vice-chair of the ITRE committee.

Committee chairs are elected for two and a half years and coordinate the work of the committees in the Conference of Committee Chairs.

New members

The members of the European Parliaments 20 committees and four sub-committees were announced last Friday, with several newly-elected MEPs with backgrounds in the research world selected for ITRE.

They include Eszter Lakos, who previously worked as a science and technology diplomat in Brussels and represented Hungary in the Council of the EU during negotiations for Horizon Europe.

Lithuanian MEP Paulius Saudargas, who has a PhD in biophysics, will also bring his science experience to his work in the committee. He was previously a senior specialist at the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania, and an engineer at the Vilnius Institute of Semiconductor Physics and the Institute of Physics, before embarking on a political career in his home country.

Meanwhile, former Belgian minister of environment and pensions Bruno Tobback (S&D) will be looking to keep climate change on the agenda.

Another member of the new cohort joining ITRE is France’s Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, a former researcher on energy and climate policies at the Jacques Delors Institute and Paris-based think tank, the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE).

ITRE has an additional 12 members, taking the total to 90 MEPs for the upcoming mandate, making it the largest committee in Parliament, along with the environment committee.

Familiar faces

There are also plenty of familiar faces returning to ITRE. Germany’s Christian Ehler, who was co-rapporteur for Horizon Europe and plans to be involved in negotiations for the next framework programme, FP10, has been elected by the EPP as the group’s coordinator in the committee. Ehler also chairs the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA), the European Parliament's science think tank.

The role of the coordinator is to build consensus among the MEPs of their group, to negotiate on their behalf with other groups, and to allocate reports.

The other Horizon Europe co-rapporteur, Dan Nica, will lead the S&D MEPs in ITRE. He is an advocate for greater geographical balance in the distribution of funds from Horizon Europe and the European Defence Fund. During negotiations for the current framework programme, Nica called for a bigger Widening programme and higher salaries for EU-funded researchers in poorer member states.

French MEP Christophe Grudler will be Renew’s coordinator. Grudler, a strong proponent of nuclear energy, said his group’s priorities will be decarbonisation, innovation, and industrial sovereignty.

“From semiconductors to AI, space, and biotechnology, the EU must accelerate to avoid being left behind. Our policies must promote innovation and sustainable growth, leveraging the strengths of a competitive market while boosting investments in key strategic sectors,” he said.

Latvian MEP Ivars Ijabs (Renew) has also returned to ITRE. Ijabs is another supporter of Widening efforts, but favours the use of cohesion funds to this end, and he has been a supporter of increased funding for research.

Left-wing MEP Marc Botenga is no longer a member of ITRE, but will continue as a substitute, as he instead joins the foreign affairs committee. The Belgian was often a dissenting voice during the last mandate, pushing back on policies such as the upcoming pharmaceutical reform and the recent focus on EU competitiveness.

Other committees

Elsewhere, the ECR’s Johan Van Overtveldt has been re-elected chair of the budgets committee. During the previous mandate, the Belgian MEP was vocal in pushing for increased investments in research and innovation.

“I sincerely hope that we can continue to evolve towards a future-proof budget that stimulates investment, supports the purchasing power of citizens and the competitiveness of our companies, and focuses on real and current needs, such as the support for Ukraine and strengthening military capacities in the European Union,” he said in a statement today.

Polish MEP Adam Jarubas (EPP), the new chair of the public health subcommittee (SANT) said during the first meeting MEPs must “ensure appropriate funds for health programs, such as EU4Health and Horizon Europe” in the next long-term EU budget.

The environment, public health and food safety (ENVI) committee will be chaired by Antonio Decaro, a newly elected S&D MEP from Italy and former mayor of Bari.