Horizon Europe and the European Green Deal
By Ingemar Pongratz
Nordic Museum by Ingemar Pongratz
The European Commission under the new Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has recently unveiled The European Green Deal. The European Green Deal includes a number of legislation packages aiming to turn Europe into the first climate neutral continent by 2050. This is indeed a very ambitious objectives and will impact a large number of sectors, such food, industry, manufacturing and many, many other. The European Commission has stated that the European Green Deal will affect areas such as emissions, environmental preservation and of course research.
The effects on the Horizon Europe and the European Green Deal are still unclear. Horizon Europe is the next research and innovation programme which will start in 2012, once the Horizon 2020 ends in 2020. Horizon Europe is still in the planning stage and the budget discussions are currently ongoing. The European Council President, Charles Michel, has stated that the European Green Deal will require considerable research investments. However, there are serious objections among several EU member states to increase the national contribution to the EU. We should expect financial cuts into the Horizon Europe.
Countries like Germany, Sweden, Finland are very reluctant to increase the national contribution towards the EU budget. These countries are advocating a considerable reshuffling from areas such as agricultural or regional financial support towards research. However, several member states oppose this viewpoint. In addition, there are suggestions to couple EU financial support to compliance with the Union democratic principles. Some countries oppose this suggestion either.
These discussions are ongoing, and it will take time untill a solution in in place.
However, it is clear that Horizon Europe will be much more policy oriented. The discussions in the European Parliament have hinted that research must be used to support policy. In fact, the new Agricultural Commissioner has stated that Agricultural research funding should support implementation the European Green Deal. Most likely other DGs will also support and Horizon Europe and the European Green Deal will surely also be closely connected.
The European Green Deal will influence citizens, businesses, and authorities. In fact, it is likely that the effects will also affect EU neighbouring countries as well. Thus I expect that policy support will be a much higher priority in the for the Horizon Europe programme.
Ingemar Pongratz is founder of Fenix Scientific AB / Pongratz Consulting. He has also established Letavis AB in collaboration with other partners. Through Pongratz Consulting, we offer support to Universities and Enterprises to apply from different public funding schemes such as Horizon 2020. Please contact us if you need our services. Please use the Online Contact Form or send an email to:
Ingemar.Pongratz () pongratzconsulting.com
St Jacob church by Ingemar Pongratz
