At a Special European Council meeting in Brussels last week, EU leaders proposed that the Horizon Europe budget be cut by €2.1 billion with the funds redirected to address a limited number of priority areas, including Ukraine, migration, the strategic technologies for Europe platform (STEP), Next Generation EU interest payments, etc.
As part of the mid-term revision of the current long-term EU budget (Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027), the European Council proposes to address these new priorities with nearly €65 billion (out of which €10.6 billion comes from redeployments from existing programmes such as Horizon Europe).
According to EU leaders, the funding should be distributed as follows:
- €50 billion for the Ukraine Facility
- €2 billion for migration and border management
- €7.6 billion for the neighbourhood and the world
- €1.5 billion for the European Defence Fund under the new STEP instrument
- €2 billion for the flexibility instrument
- €1.5 billion for the solidarity and emergency aid reserve
In contrast to the Commission’s proposal for the mid-term revision of the MFF 2021- 2027 published in June last year, which included an additional €2.6 billion for the European Innovation Council under Horizon Europe, the European Council’s proposal redirects funds from the programme to help address other priorities. This includes €1.5 billion for the European Defence Fund that the UK does not participate in
Next steps
The Council of the EU (representing the EU Member States) and the European Parliament will need to engage in negotiations in the coming months and eventually adopt the mid-term revision of the long-term EU budget before the proposed changes can be implemented. This means that the proposed cuts to the Horizon Europe budget could be reduced, or even completely reversed during the political discussions.
The European Parliament’s position on the mid-term revision is available here.