Opinion: They couldn’t care less!

At the occasion of yesterday's agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council on the EU's budget for the next seven years, please find hereby an opinion piece by Prof Dr Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General LERU, focussing on the EU's budget for research, innovation and education in the period 2021-2027. 

They couldn’t care less!

Instead of investing additional national money in EU research and innovation policy, the Member States prefer competition fines to do the job. For LERU, this is another illustration of the fact that their daily oral support for research and innovation is just pure rhetoric.  

Yesterday, the European Parliament (EP) reached an agreement with the Member States (i.e. the European Council) on the EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027, the EU’s budget for the next seven years. This budget determines what the EU will spend on, among others, research & innovation (Horizon Europe) and education (Erasmus). 

As you will remember, the European Council proposed in July 2020 to allocate €75,9 billion from this EU budget to Horizon Europe, the next framework programme for research & innovation. Another €5 billion euro was added from the covid-19 recovery fund, Next Generation EU, be it ring-fenced to parts of pillar 2 (e.g. climate, digital, health research) and pillar 3 (European Innovation Council) of Horizon Europe, disregarding in this way both the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) (pillar 1). This made a total of €80,9 billion in 2018 prices for Horizon Europe. Being €2,5 billion less than what the European Commission (EC) proposed in 2018 (€83,4 billion) and getting closer to the budget of Horizon Europe’s predecessor, Horizon 2020.   

Because the July proposal of the European Council was also far away from the budget demands of the European Parliament (EP), the EP wanted to negotiate about a top up for Horizon Europe and other future oriented programs (Erasmus, Health, etc). Legally, the EP can not negotiate on the budget, it can only approve or reject it. The European Council (led by the German EU Presidency) went along with this demand for negotiation, but indicated very clearly that it would not review its July budget proposal. 

The outcome of the negotiations on Tuesday, notably World Science Day (!), is a big disappointment: compared to the Council’s July proposal, Horizon Europe gets a small top up of €4 billion, to be financed by competition fines (!) and reallocated funds. Also programs like Erasmus (+€2,2 billion) and Health (+€3,4 billion) get a modest top up, in a similar way. In 2018 prices, this means: €84,9 billion for Horizon Europe; €23,4 billion for Erasmus; €5,1 billion for Health.  

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) wants to thank the EP for the efforts made, but is nonetheless very clear: the outcome is peanuts. This budgetary outcome is billions away from the claims made by the EP and groups like LERU over the past two years. Today, we can only dream of figures like €120, €140 or even €160 billion for Horizon Europe, which seemed likely and justifiable just two years ago. 

In fact, we are, more or less, back at the level of the research budget of seven years ago (Horizon 2020 is worth €74,2 billion in 2018 prices). This is now nicely and deliberately camouflaged by this top up of uncertain sources like competition fines (€4 billion) and the ring-fenced contribution of Next Generation EU (€5 billion). 

It is quite disappointing that in a period where making the case for investing in research, innovation and education never has been so easy (the covid-19 crisis proves this every day abundantly!), member states are not ready to invest more in them. In this context, the German EU Presidency, announced as putting research and innovation center stage, simply has not delivered: under high pressure from Angela Merkel, a timely approval of the MFF, and even more importantly of Next Generation EU, was considered more crucial than having a credible MFF. The fact that the European Council lacks a champion for research and innovation has been proven again. But, clearly, they couldn’t care less …

So, what to do with this €84,9 billion for Horizon Europe, a budget which is partly uncertain (€4 billion top up from competition fines) and ring-fenced (€5 billion top up from Next Generation EU)? 

For LERU, it is clear that there are only two absolute key priorities in Horizon Europe: ERC and MSCA. Already in 2018, LERU indicated that the Horizon Europe budget proposal by the EC was disregarding the success of the ERC and MSCA: the proposed budget for the ERC stabilized, that for MSCA was even reduced. Meanwhile, the EU research ministers have agreed with a haircut approach for the further reduction of the Horizon Europe budget, meaning a further reduction of, among others, ERC and MSCA budgets. For LERU, this is unacceptable. If one looks at the just published 2019 qualitative evaluation study of ERC funded projects, one should even wonder why not the entire Horizon Europe budget is spent on the ERC. The return on investment is so significant, that one can wonder who ever suggested that stabilization and reduction of the ERC budget. Incomprehensible.

All this means that the distribution of the Horizon Europe budget over the different pillars of the program is the next battle ground. For LERU it is clear that there can’t be a haircut approach and that the integral €4 billion top up must be added to the budget proposed for the ERC and MSCA, certainly if they can’t share in the €5 billion top up through Next Generation EU. As “researcher driven” programs, ERC and MSCA have proven their added value and are two of the most successful initiatives ever by the EU: they must be rewarded and reinforced. No discussion. 

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1999) Ahmed Zewail once said: “Investing in science, education and curiosity-driven research is investing in the future”. Over the past year, the Member States have proven once again that they still don’t grasp this and that they remain the gravediggers of EU research & innovation policy. Meanwhile, the US and China are stepping up, again, their investments in research and innovation, leaving the EU further behind. Clearly, we don’t have the politicians we deserve.  

Prof Kurt Deketelaere 
Secretary-General, LERU