A clear victory for researchers, scientists and citizens

“Victory for research! Victory for Horizon Europe! Finally, we have achieved an ambitious and balanced budget which strongly supports fundamental research as well as thematic research”, said Christian Ehler MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman on the research programme Horizon Europe and also one of Parliament's Chief Negotiators on the subject.

Today, in the early hours of the morning, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers agreed on new rules for 2021-2027 for Europe's major research programme known as Horizon Europe.

Horizon Europe will now include an additional €1bn for the European Research Council and the highest budget ever for digital topics. For the first time, there is also a specific budget for Europe's cultural and creative industries.

“There is no doubt that this deal reflects the needs of the European research and innovation community. It will invariably translate into a higher quality of life for our European citizens”, said Ehler.

Notably, this agreement has legally bound the EU to defend academic freedom across the continent.

“Finally, since the European Parliament had insisted on having a Partial Agreement back in April 2019, we are now in the enviable position of finalising the whole programme. This means that Horizon Europe can start on the 1st of January 2021”, Ehler concluded.

Horizon Europe is the 9th Research Framework Programme 2021-2027 and builds on the previous programme Horizon 2020.