Michel budget plan tries to limit Horizon Europe cuts to €3bn

As European Union leaders prepared to gather on Thursday for budget negotiations, European Council President Charles Michel offered a compromise plan that would include limiting cuts to research funding to under €3 billion (US$3.2 billion) – but the odds of agreement appear long, reports Science|Business.

Michel’s budget plan, developed after a round of visits to EU capitals by the new president, is the latest attempt to break a deadlock between richer member states that want to spend less on the EU, and poorer countries determined to prevent cuts to cohesion funds, which are designed to help their economies catch up. Pleasing both sides means cutting other parts of the budget – like research. But advocates of research funding have been trying to cushion the blow.

A cut of this size, nearly €3 billion from the European Commission’s original proposal of a €94.1 billion, seven-year research budget, has been on the cards since December. But as the summit meeting approached, a parade of politicians – in both member-state capitals and the European Parliament – criticised Michel’s plan.
Full report on the Science|Business site