- Posted 19-Oct-2020
Update on Horizon Europe Negotiations
The European Parliament’s rapporteurs on the Horizon Europe programme negotiation have provided an update on discussions with the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).
The renewed negotiations commenced shortly after the Council adopted its position on Horizon Europe, allowing the talks on the outstanding elements of the programme (which were not included in the provisional agreement between the Council and Parliament reached last year,) to continue. These elements include the programme’s budget, international cooperation aspects (together with the association policy) and synergies with other EU programmes.
The following main points of divergence have been identified during the first trilogue (talks between the Parliament, Council and Commission):
Budget
The Parliament expressed its disappointment with the Council’s position that includes only €85.5 billion for Horizon Europe, far less than the €120 billion proposed by the Parliament. The latter wants the EU Member States (represented in the Council) to ensure sufficient funding is available for research and innovation for the EU to address major societal challenges and to maintain a competitive position in key innovation areas.
Furthermore, Members of European Parliament (MEP) want the revenues of countries associated to Horizon Europe to be integrated in the main programme budget from the start and not through a separate annual review procedure, which is currently in place for Horizon 2020 and which (in their view) lacks transparency. They argue that such a move would allow applicants to make better decisions on which parts of the programme they should be applying to, based on clear budgetary allocations.
International Cooperation
The view of the Parliament is that association to the sectoral EU programmes should consider the specific aspects of each programme. Therefore, for Horizon Europe, the committee calls for reciprocal access to the Associated Countries’ programmes, in line with the Commission’s original proposal.
More importantly, however, the Parliament calls for exclusion of mono-beneficiary actions (e.g. ERC grants, MSCA Fellowships, and EIC Accelerator grants) from the scope of association for countries under Article 12 (d) of the Regulation. In its current form, this includes the UK and Switzerland, among others.
Synergies
The Parliament is calling for a single set of rules regarding cost eligibility, as there is concern that the Council’s current approach will not change the existing situation where beneficiaries do not know how to combine Horizon 2020 funds with those from other EU programmes effectively. Furthermore, the committee is calling for greater recognition of the Seal of Excellence at national/regional level and exemption from EU State Aid rules.
The Parliament will only resume negotiations once it believes that the Council is ready to increase the overall budget of Horizon Europe, which will help to address many existing issues. However, technical talks are expected to continue in the coming weeks.
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
The ITRE Committee also received a separate update from the MEPs negotiating the legal basis for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), including its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).
While progress has been made by the negotiators in a number of areas, including the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), as well as inclusion of Public Health Emergency clauses after the COVID-19 outbreak, the following issues still need to be resolved:
- Geographical coverage of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs);
- Financing of KICs after 15 years - the Parliament wants continued financing after 15 years in contrast to the Council's position which envisages that KICs would need to be self-sufficient after that period;
- Selection of new KICs and openness of EIT calls - the Parliament wants full openness of future calls as opposed to the Council's view that some of them should be limited to EIT members only;
- The Parliament also wants clearly defined evaluation criteria for ex aequo proposals (proposals with the same overall score), as is currently the case for other parts of Horizon 2020.
Source: UKRO