ERAC met on 9 October 2023 for a plenary meeting hosted by the Spanish Presidency of the Council in Malaga.
The meeting focussed primarily on the next ERA Policy Agenda (EPA). The strategic debate on the national implementation of the EU Missions that had originally been planned for the Malaga meeting, had been taken off the agenda upon request of the Spanish Council Presidency.
ERAC discussed the procedure and timeline for the establishment of the next EPA. DG Marc Lemaitre proposed to postpone the Commission’s proposal for a Council Recommendation on the next ERA Policy Agenda from autumn 2024 to early 2025, so that the proposal could then be put forward by the new Commission, which will become operational in November 2024. The main reasons given for this by the Commission were the aim to secure high-level political ownership of the next EPA also by the new Commission, and to gain more time for the co-creation process between Commission, Member States and Stakeholders for drafting the EPA and for securing political commitment to the future ERA actions.