ALLEA urges the President of the European Commission to maintain budget for Horizon 2020 programme in view of the proposal for a European Fund for Strategic Investments

Jean-Claude Juncker

Jean-Claude Juncker

In a letter sent to Jean-Claude Juncker on 9 December 2014, the ALLEA President responded to the proposal for a European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) which aims to boost job creation and economic recovery in Europe.

While ALLEA principally supports the Commission´s efforts to fuel sustainable growth and prosperity in the European Union, as well as tackling major concerns facing Europe such as unemployment amongst young people, it appears counter-productive to remove funds from Horizon 2020´s agreed budget and therewith impair the immense potential impact of high-quality research for growth and prosperity in Europe.

Considering that a total of € 2.7 billion is planned to be re-allocated from the Horizon 2020 budget to the European Fund for Strategic Investment the ALLEA President states: “The Horizon 2020 budget is already under pressure, with vastly increased demand and lower budget available in 2014 for key areas than the preceding year. In our view, decreasing this budget further in an area already agreed as a priority is not the way to proceed in order to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity.”

The EFSI proposal will be discussed by the European Council at its meeting on 18/19 December 2014. ALLEA encourages all member academies and other institutions and individuals from the scientific community in Europe to take all feasible actions in order to secure a stable and substantial budget for excellent and trans-disciplinary science and research.

Click here to read the full text of the letter.