Parliament committee decries ‘scandal’ of EU R&D budget plans

MEP Christian Ehler says Council’s cut-now-spend-later approach “completely undermines” bloc’s political goals

MEPs are pushing back on plans from national governments in the Council of the EU to slash the proposed 2022 budget of the bloc’s Horizon Europe R&D programme by €316 million.

In the first meeting after the summer break of the European Parliament’s research committee on 2 September, a lead MEP on the legislation underpinning Horizon Europe, Christian Ehler (pictured), said the planned cuts were “nothing less than a scandal”.