The European Commission has recently published its draft EU budget for 2024, which includes €12.8 billion for the fourth year of Horizon Europe and €281 million for Euratom. The amounts proposed for both programmes constitute an increase of 3.7% and 1.7%, respectively, when compared to the amounts suggested by the Commission for 2023.
For 2024, the Commission proposes the following key strategic orientations for Horizon Europe, which will be supported by the proposed budget:
- Promoting an open strategic autonomy by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains to accelerate and steer the digital and green transitions through human-centred technologies and innovations;
- Restoring Europe’s ecosystems and biodiversity, and managing sustainably natural resources to ensure food security and a clean and healthy environment;
- Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems; and
- Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society, prepared and responsive to threats and disasters (including pandemic risks, for which HERA will steer the related research activities), addressing inequalities and providing high-quality health care, and empowering all citizens to act in the green and digital transitions.
- Providing targeted actions to support Ukraine such as reinforcing Ukrainian researchers’ access to European research infrastructures while the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities will support a number of Ukrainian cities in integrating the principles of climate neutrality in their reconstruction.
In addition to these programmes, the Commission also proposed a budget of €556 million for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and €775 million for the Copernicus (Space) programme, which are the programmes that the UK has decided to formally associate to under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
In total, the proposed annual EU budget for 2024 amounts to €189.3 billion and will be complemented by an estimated €113 billion in payments for grants under NextGenerationEU – the EU’s post-pandemic recovery instrument.
Next steps
The proposed budget must now be discussed within the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament and an agreement between them must be reached before the end of this year. Both institutions are expected to adopt their negotiating positions on the 2024 EU budget in the coming months.