Old and new MEPs push back against planned Horizon Europe cuts

In the new Parliament, the old fights over research funding continue, with the newly appointed members of the Industry, Research and Energy committee ITRE, hitting back against the EU Council's proposed cuts to Horizon Europe in the 2025 budget.

The Commission, the Parliament, and the Council all “agree that competitiveness is the most important issue for this term,” Christian Ehler MEP told the committee in the first meeting of its new mandate on Wednesday.

However, the Parliament seems to be alone in wanting to make the political choices needed in the budget, Ehler said, pointing to the agreement the Council reached last Wednesday on the 2025 EU draft budget. 

 In the agreement, the Council suggested cutting €450.49 million from the research and innovation budget, of which €400 million would be from Horizon Europe and €50.48 million from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

Ehler noted the cuts to Horizon Europe would include €70 million from the European Research Council, €40 million from industry partnerships, and nearly €40 million from the European Innovation Council. In addition, the Connecting Europe Facility and the digital facility would lose €110 million, and member states also want to cut €35 million from secure connectivity.

The proposed cuts are on top of a €2.1 billion cut from the original €95.5 billion Horizon Europe budget for the entire 2021-2027 period, which was made following an agreement by EU heads of state at the mid-term budget review in February.

That €2.1 billion raid was part of a €64.6 billion rejig of the EU’s multiannual budget, to accommodate the growing costs of supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Old and new ITRE members

Ehler is an old hand in research budget negotiations, having been co-rapporteur for Horizon Europe and with plans to be involved in the next framework programme, FP10. He is back on ITRE after being elected by the EPP group as its coordinator on the committee.

Other MEPs echoed Ehler’s views on cuts to the Horizon Europe budget, including S&D’s Lina Galvez and Christophe Grudler for Renew. Similarly, Marc Botenga, speaking as substitute on behalf of The Left, criticised the proposed cut.

The consensus among new ITRE members that the research budget should be preserved is so wide, it even extends to newly-elected French MEP Sarah Knafo, of Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête party, which campaigned on a platform of reducing France’s contribution to the EU budget by 20%.

“If there is one domain where for us cooperation is worthwhile, and where we must resist budget cuts, it’s […] industry and research,” Knafo said. Funding is required to make Europe the “number one industrial power in the world again”. The far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group will pay particular attention to files related to space sovereignty and satellites, she added.

While the ECR’s Elena Donazzan agreed it was bad that the 2025 Horizon Europe budget will to be cut, she suggested it is a done deal and ITRE needs to focus on the 2026 budget.  

“We'll have to take the budget proposal as it stands, since even the timeframe for amendments is not enough,” she said.

Donazzan, a newly elected Italian MEP, who was voted in on Tuesday as second vice chair of ITRE, also wants ITRE to shift the focus from the Green Deal, to ensuring Europe becomes more competitive.

However, Ehler said it is not too late to stop the 2025 Horizon Europe cuts. “We all know the budget procedure,” he said. “If you look back to recent years, we were able to restore at least the Horizon, competitiveness, and innovation related parts.”

Ehler pointed to the Council’s strategic agenda, in which member states called for research and innovation to be reinforced, and stressed the need to keep up in the global race to develop net zero technologies. The Council’s proposed €400 million cut would mean “intentionally […] ignoring” its own statement, he said.

“We are undermining the foundation of what is an innovative Europe, and we really have to [resist] that,” Ehler said. The proposed budget is “simply not acceptable”.

The Council is due to adopt its position on the 2025 EU budget by September 13, providing a mandate for the Hungarian presidency to negotiate with the European Parliament. The legal deadline for reaching an agreement on the annual budget is November 18.