UK remains quiet amid reports of deal on Horizon Europe access

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could decide next week on whether to accept an arrangement that would finally see the UK obtain access to the €95 billion Horizon Europe research and development funding programme after two and a half years of delays.

Sunak is set to hold talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of next week’s NATO summit in Vilnius after UK and EU officials confirmed that a compromise was close.

However, on Thursday (6 July), the UK premier’s spokesperson played down media reports earlier this week that a deal had already been reached with the EU executive. 

UK access to Horizon Europe had been included as part of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which came into force after London left the EU’s single market in January 2021 but the European Commission blocked this citing the UK’s failure to implement the customs and border checks required as part of the Northern Ireland protocol.    

After EU and UK officials finalised the ‘Windsor Framework’ in February, which ended the dispute over the protocol, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed that negotiators would move quickly to confirm the UK’s association membership of Horizon. 

However, in the months since then, officials have haggled over the UK’s contributions to the scheme. 

UK ministers argue that the two-year delay in access to Horizon has severely disadvantaged its universities and researchers since many projects are multi-year and have already begun without UK involvement. However, the university community has pointed out that the UK benefited disproportionately from Horizon’s predecessor programme and would be likely to do the same under Horizon Europe. 

Having initially argued that the UK’s pro rata contributions should be the same as originally agreed as part of the TCA, the EU is understood to have offered some compromise on the financial terms. The disagreement between officials has been over tens of millions of euros. Should the UK join Horizon, it would be expected to contribute around €2.5 billion per year. 

In May, the UK government set out plans for its own domestic programme known as ‘Pioneer’, which would receive the same amount of funding as the government would have paid to associate with Horizon from 2021 to 2027.  

Downing Street said on Thursday morning that a “deal has not been agreed”. 

Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters that the two years of exclusion had “an impact on the participation rates for UK scientists”. 

“It doesn’t just affect the past two years but also the future value that the UK will get from these programmes and the UK would be a net contributor to a Horizon programme if a decision was made to take that approach,” he said. 

”I think overall we want to make sure that any deal, whether it is Horizon or the UK alternative Pioneer, is the one that produces the best value for UK science and research and also for taxpayers,” the spokesperson said. 

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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