Commission proposal would commit €9.7bn of €13.9bn total within first two years
Of the €13.9bn the European Commission has proposed allocating to the EU’s 2021-27 R&D programme from a controversial Covid-19 financial recovery package, it wants 69 per cent to be committed within the first two years.
A Commission proposal to governments in the Council of the EU, published on 4 June, would commit—in inflation-adjusted prices—€4.9bn in 2021, €4.7bn in 2022, €2.6bn in 2023 and €1.7bn in 2024.
Payments, which generally lag commitments, would be €0.43bn in 2021, €3.5bn in 2022, €2.7bn in 2023, €2.5bn in 2024, €2.0bn in 2025, €1.9bn in 2026 and €0.9bn in 2027.
The Commission plan for the 2021-27 EU budget and its Covid-19 recovery, unveiled on 27 May, proposed a budget for the Horizon Europe R&D programme of €105.8bn in inflation-adjusted prices, of which €14.6bn would come from the Covid-19 recovery funds and the rest from the normal EU budget.
Of the €14.6bn, €13.9bn would be the operational expenditure set out annually above, and the remainder would be for administrative support. Under the Commission proposal, the Next Generation EU recovery funds cannot be committed after 31 December 2024.
If the plan is approved by the Council, the €13.9bn will be channelled into the thematic clusters of Horizon Europe focused on health; digital, industry and space; and climate energy and mobility. It will also go to the European Innovation Council, a funding stream for close-to-market support for business and entrepreneurs.