The Spanish presidency has proposed shaving as much as €5.3 billion off Horizon Europe to finance skyrocketing EU recovery fund interest rates, according to a leaked proposal seen by Science|Business.
The proposal, sent to the member states last week, outlines three scenarios for cutting EU funding for 2025 – 2027, including one that suggests a cut as high as 13.5%. According to the document, EU ambassadors discussed the document at a Coreper meeting on 23 November.
If agreed to by the member states and subsequently by the European Parliament, this could cost EU researchers as much as €5.3 billion in the worst case and €1.3 billion in the smallest proposed cut is applied. While Horizon Europe would be in line for the biggest cut, other research-related programmes, such as Erasmus+, EU4Health and Digital Europe, would also see cuts as high as 13.5%.