The member states of the European Union and the European Parliament have been negotiating the budget for the next seven years for some time now. This summer, President of the European Council Charles Michel presented a budget proposal that led to a furious response from 800 European universities.

Michel proposed a budget of €76 billion for research and innovation program Horizon Europe, plus €5 billion for a special European coronavirus recovery fund. That was several billions less than the amount the European Commission had originally proposed.

Fruit

The universities didn’t leave it at that and started a joint campaign. These protests now appear to have borne fruit. After months of negotiating, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission reached a political agreement this week. It includes an additional sum of €4 billion for Horizon Europe after all.

Exchange program Erasmus+ will also get an extra €2.2 billion, on top of the original budget of €21.2 billion euros.

Good news

“Naturally, we had hoped for more money, but this is good news in the end,” says Joep Roet, Policy Adviser at Neth-ER, the organization that represents the Dutch knowledge community in Brussels. “We can at least assume that the programs will start on time.”

The agreement still needs to be officially approved by the European Parliament and Council. That means that all 27 member states need to unanimously agree. Roet is optimistic. “Officially, we aren’t there yet, but there’s a good chance that it will happen.”

Veto

However, the recently introduced ‘Rule of law’ agreement might still cause some tension. “According to this agreement, payments to EU member states will be linked to adherence to the rule of law,” Roet explains. “That is why Poland and Hungary have threatened to block the ratification of the agreement with a veto. So, this might be a potential risk, but I expect them to agree on his during negotiations.”

The money from research program Horizon Europe is used, among other things, to finance the science grants from the European Research Council, something the Netherlands profits from significantly.