The League of European Research Universities (LERU) fully supports the statement of Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament, EPP) and calls, again, upon the European Council for an increase of the Horizon Europe budget.

We call on EU Heads of States and Governments to 

Match the Green and Digital goals with a budget fit for this age

On 21 July 2020, the EU Council reached an agreement on the EU long-term budget and Recovery Fund, which severely slashed EU funds for research, innovation, health and to fight climate change.

The European Parliament calls for an increase of Horizon Europe budget and cannot accept the Council agreement, as it;

1. Maims Europe’s ability to step into the next decade.
2. Only means that Europe will continue to lag behind its competitors, notably the US and China. The EU started the past decade absolutely determined to become a powerhouse for technology and the most innovative place in the world. Instead, the EU is now fighting to remain relevant in a fast moving world.
3. Impedes European growth and competitiveness. A total of EUR 13,5bn was shaved off from Horizon Europe research programme, if one compares the agreement with the initial EU Commission proposal.
4. Killed off all ambitions to achieve the 55% reduction of CO2 in a decade. A sufficient amount of EU money needs to be allocated for new cutting-edge technologies, which would facilitate transformative changes of most industrial sectors in Europe.
5. Hampers European’s ability to combat the negative impact of this and future pandemics. The development of vaccines depends on properly financed research and development.
6. Means an EU meltdown when it comes to fundamental and applied research, development and innovation, especially when stronger EU countries already started raising their Research & Development budget beyond 3% of GDP. These countries are already developing their own national programmes on technologies, like Quantum & Artificial Intelligence.

This position is supported by the broad EU Research & Innovation community, including major organisations:

• The Vice-Presidents of the European Research Council, Eveline Crone, Janet Thornton and Fabio Zwirner. The ERC mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence. Seven Nobel prizes were awarded to ERC grantees.
• European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO): Representing over 350 research and technology organisations in more than 20 countries.
• European University Association (EUA): Representing more than 800 universities and national rectors' conferences in 48 European countries.
• League of European Research Universities (LERU): Representing 23 leading universities pushing the frontiers of innovative research in 12 European countries.
• Science Europe: Representing the interests of 37 public research performing and research funding organisations in 27 countries.

Christian Ehler - Member of the European Parliament, EPP Group Coordinator in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, and Rapporteur for Horizon Europe. Read the original statement