The European Commission has today announced their proposals for the EU’s next seven year research Programme. With a proposed budget of €100bn, the Horizon Europe programme will continue to focus on common challenges such as technology, health and climate change.

The European Commission has today announced their proposals for the EU’s next seven year research Programme. With a proposed budget of €100bn, the Horizon Europe programme will continue to focus on common challenges such as technology, health and climate change as well as attempting to improve access to scientific results and boost the level of innovation generated by the programme.

Speaking after the announcement was made, ECR Group spokesman on research and Vice President of the European Parliament, Zdzisław Krasnodębski, said:

“The research and innovation programmes are generally considered the EU’s most successful areas of spending and increasing their budget should win widespread support. Given the budget challenges facing the EU it’s important to keep making this case as the Commission’s proposal is likely to come under threat given the proposed cuts we’ve seen elsewhere.

“We will continue to support the core values of the research programmes and the commitment to ‘excellent science’, however more still needs to be done to boost participation from newer Member States otherwise we’ll continue to see ‘brain drain’ from Eastern and Central Europe.

With specific reference to the UK’s continued participation in the programme following their exit from the EU he continued:

“The UK has always been one of the key players in EU framework programmes and nobody gains if they are excluded. The proposal would allow the UK’s continued participation and hopefully a solution can be found quickly so that we can send a signal that reassures scientists and networks throughout the European research community.”