Less EU funding for research and innovation due to coronavirus recovery package

The agreement reached by European leaders to rescue the corona-hit economy comes at the expense of the budget for research and innovation. From the reserved 94.4 billion euros agreed in May, only 80.9 billion will be left. That is even less than feared.

In May there was still general agreement that research needs extra resources to tackle Covid-19. During the negotiations, however, the budget was pared back significantly. The only way to secure the research funding is now via the European Parliament, which also has a vote in the budget.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had already been forced to justify a planned reduction to 89.4 billion euros in the House of Representatives last week, said there was little to be done, although he was unwilling to talk about a cut.
The reduction of the Horizon budget seemed likely all weekend, provoking anger among European universities. On Friday, it had already been cut by 5 billion. Secretary-general of the European university organisation LERU, Kurt Deketelaere, called council president Charles Michel ‘a weak EU president’ and the EU leaders ‘gravediggers’.