Reduced budget proposed for next Horizon Europe

The Irish EU presidency has put out its “negotiating box” for the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–34, shaving billions of previous proposals from the European Commission but still drawing criticism from those member states who want deeper reductions in spending. The proposal still represents an increase of around 30 per cent on the current MFF.

For Horizon Europe, this would equate to €140bn over the period (in 2025 prices), divided into around £35bn for excellent science – the strand that incorporates the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions – around €60bn for competitiveness and society, €31bn for innovation, and €13bn for the European Research Area.

The proposal for each strand is a 20 per cent cut on what the European Commission called for last summer, but once projected inflation is taken into account, it represents more like a ten per cent decrease – and is still a substantial uplift on the current Horizon Europe framework programme.

The Council of the EU’s suggested budget – which largely protects agriculture and regional development – is an attempt to find a middle ground between those member states who want much larger reductions in the EU budget, and the more expansive aims of the European Commission and many stakeholders in the European Parliament.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has immediately responded by saying that “the size of the new proposal is not a basis for agreement.” The German government, along with those of Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, want to see the EU budget come in at several hundred billion pounds less than the amount the Commission is arguing for.