One of the quaint rituals of this company town – where the ‘company’
is the European Commission – is making your way around the holiday
party circuit. It is at these parties, most hosted by companies and
trade associations, that the real business of government happens:
Exchanging gossip about who’s in, who’s out, and what the year ahead
promises.
Alas, the gossip isn’t cheery for a major
issue we have been following, the Commission’s €80 billion, Horizon
2020 proposal to expand its RandD budget for the rest of the decade.
For the past year, the Commission, Council and Parliament have been
tied together in a slow-motion, three-legged dance to decide the fate
of this plan. If the party gossip is right, the dance is a long way
from over – and that’s bad news for anyone counting on some EU money to
keep their labs running from 2014.
To put it in
perspective: EU funding in research and innovation comprises 5 to 7 per
cent (depending on who’s counting) of total European government
support for this activity. It will amount to roughly 8 per cent of the
total EU budget through the rest of this decade – a distant third in
programmatic spending, after the rich pork-barrel budgets of
agriculture and regional development. This is, in short, a relatively
modest line item. Yet you’d never guess that from all the noise here.
The
biggest noise at present is over the total EU budget, with budget
hawks in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and a few other countries
demanding an austerity-era cut. But there’s more than a little hypocrisy
involved. The UK, for instance, is one of the three biggest recipients
of EU RandD funding (with Germany and France.) So – surprise – it
wants the EU cuts to come in farm, regional and administrative spending,
not in R and D. Equally no surprise: Those countries in eastern and
southern Europe that get relatively little RandD money put it lower
down on their budget priorities, and dig in for support of regional
development funds. This top-line budget fight is, according to the party
chatter, going to take until at least February – and more likely May –
to be One of the quaint rituals of this company town – where the ‘company’
is the European Commission – is making your way around the holiday
party circuit. It is at these parties, most hosted by companies and
trade associations, that the real business of government happens:
Exchanging gossip about who’s in, who’s out, and what the year ahead
promises.
Alas, the gossip isn’t cheery for a major
issue we have been following, the Commission’s €80 billion, Horizon
2020 proposal to expand its RandD budget for the rest of the decade.
For the past year, the Commission, Council and Parliament have been
tied together in a slow-motion, three-legged dance to decide the fate
of this plan. If the party gossip is right, the dance is a long way
from over – and that’s bad news for anyone counting on some EU money to
keep their labs running from 2014.
To put it in
perspective: EU funding in research and innovation comprises 5 to 7 per
cent (depending on who’s counting) of total European government
support for this activity. It will amount to roughly 8 per cent of the
total EU budget through the rest of this decade – a distant third in
programmatic spending, after the rich pork-barrel budgets of
agriculture and regional development. This is, in short, a relatively
modest line item. Yet you’d never guess that from all the noise here.
The
biggest noise at present is over the total EU budget, with budget
hawks in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and a few other countries
demanding an austerity-era cut. But there’s more than a little hypocrisy
involved. The UK, for instance, is one of the three biggest recipients
of EU RandD funding (with Germany and France.) So – surprise – it
wants the EU cuts to come in farm, regional and administrative spending,
not in R and D. Equally no surprise: Those countries in eastern and
southern Europe that get relatively little RandD money put it lower
down on their budget priorities, and dig in for support of regional
development funds. This top-line budget fight is, according to the party
chatter, going to take until at least February – and more likely May –
to be
settled.
Read more: The party chatter: A long, cold year ahead for EU RandD funding - Science|Business
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