Throughout recent parliamentary hearings of the European Commission, prospective Commissioners for Budget and Energy (Johannes Hahn and Kadri Simson) claimed the need for a reallocation of European resources in favour of Research & Innovation.
According to Hahn, it will be necessary to redefine EU investment priorities for 2021-2027, by allocating to research part of the budget that is now dedicated to agriculture (CAP) and Cohesion Policy.
Commissioners emphasized the importance of the new EU Research & Innovation Programme Horizon Europe and also lamented that investments in this field are not increasing fast enough. During her hearing, Kadri Simson said that achieving the target of a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050 is impossible unless the EU is ready to make a “colossal effort” by investing in R&I. For this reason, Horizon Europe will play a key role in funding innovative projects on energy efficiency and environmental protection.
To this aim, the Commissioner for Innovation and Youth Mariya Gabriel will work hard to obtain an increase in research spending for Horizon Europe from current € 77 to € 94,1 billion by 2021, at a time when the EU budget will lose the contribution from the UK. Simson and Gabriel will cooperate to make Horizon Europe a catalyst for more public and private investment. Around 35% of Horizon Europe budget will be devoted to projects aimed at counteracting climate change.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen created several new roles for commissioners aimed at sharing responsibility for climate policy. The Commission will also need to find new sources of income to foster investments in R&I and, for this reason, it already started to implement a tax on plastic bags and the extension of carbon emissions trading schemed to aviation and maritime transport. Besides, the President also proposed an EU cross border carbon tax. The Commission feels confident that Member States will support the new priorities in terms of budget.