MEPs want 10-per-cent raise in 2012 research budget

MEPs have requested to maintain a planed increase to the EU’s 2012 research budget by 10 per cent from last year in preparation for an upcoming budget vote.

Under the proposal, “the categories that see the biggest increases in payments are Research and Development (+10.35 per cent) and Cohesion and Structural funds (+8.38 per cent),” the Parliament’s proposal said. “The reason for this is that the implementation of these long term investment funds is now, in the fifth year of the current multiannual financial framework [2007-2013], at cruising speed.”