Council on course to reaffirm EU’s 3% R&D spending target

But draft ERA conclusions only ‘take note’ of voluntary 5 per cent joint target

National governments in the Council of the EU look set to recommit to the bloc’s long-standing target to spend 3 per cent of its GDP on R&D, but are so far taking a more cautious approach to a proposal that they should pool 5 per cent of their public R&D spending on joint programmes and partnerships.

A draft Council position on the European Research Area initiative for facilitating the free flow of knowledge and research, dated 12 October, would “reaffirm” the 3 per cent target if adopted but would only “take note” of the 5 per cent joint spending target proposed by the European Commission in its plan for the ERA published on 30 September.