The European Parliament approves the Framework Program for Research and Innovation of the EU 2021-2027

The European Parliament endorsed 17 April 2019 the provisional agreement reached by the co-legislators on Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme for the next budget period from 2021 to 2027. The European Commission presented its proposal for Horizon Europe in June 2018. Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said:

“I welcome today's vote at the European Parliament. Investing in research and innovation is investing in Europe's future, in knowledge and new solutions. That is why we set a new level of ambition to deepen Europe's innovation capability, provide lasting prosperity and preserve our global competitiveness. Horizon Europe is the most ambitious research and innovation programme ever.

The European Parliament showed today that it stands behind Horizon Europe and with that behind the idea to keep the EU at the forefront of global research and innovation. When designing this programme we built on the achievements of Horizon 2020. The programme will continue to drive scientific excellence through the European Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships and exchanges, and will benefit from the expertise of the Joint Research Centre.

But we also took it up a notch. While only an idea a couple of years back, we're now setting up a fully operational European Innovation Council based on the experience of  the already successful pilot, which is funding promising innovators. The European Innovation Council will not only boost funding for innovation but also crucially help to create a whole innovation system linking early research and market application. The Commission will also launch research missions with bold and ambitious goals to tackle issues that affect our daily lives. I am very pleased that with today's vote we are getting step-by-step closer to making Horizon Europe a reality.

Background

As part of EU's next long-term budget for 2021-2027, the Commission proposed on 7 June 2018 the next EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe with a proposed budged of €100 billion. In March 2019, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement. The budgetary aspects and some related horizontal provisions such as international association of the Horizon Europe programme are subject to the overall agreement on the EU's next long-term budget, proposed by the Commission in May 2018.