More funding for Horizon 2020 in 2020

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:38:05 +0100

On 18 November 2019, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament (EP) reached an agreement in their negotiations on the EU budget for 2020. In a next step, the Council endorsed the deal on 25 November and the European Parliament voted on it in its plenary on 27 November, which means that the budget is now adopted.

The agreement on the overall budget of course also has its implications on the budget for the last year of the current European knowledge programmes. For the European Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (H2020) the European Commission’s (EC) proposal had asked for a EUR 13.2 billion envelope, the EP wanted to increase it to EUR 14.2 billion, while Member States had threatened to cut it back to EUR 12.8 billion only. The final deal now results in a budget of EUR 13.5 billion in total, which is an increase of EUR 302 million compared to the 2019 budget. The increase comes much to the joy of the R&I stakeholder organisations, who have been fighting for an ambitious budget. The EU’s programme for education, Erasmus+ will receive EUR 2.9 billion in 2020, which means an increase of 3.6% compared to the previous year.

While H2020 can now start its last year with a good financial base, the negotiations on the next MFF 2021-2027 and thus also the financial underpinnings for the next framework programme Horizon Europe are still ongoing under the current Finnish Presidency and will most likely continue until next summer. Looking at the latest Presidency proposals for the MFF, the ambitious Horizon Europe budget of EUR 94.1 billion may have to face a severe cut, Members of the European Parliament warn.