The European Union has published its proposed €200bn draft budget for 2025 with significant cuts to technology spending.
www.eenewseurope.com/, Jun. 19, 2024 –
The draft EU budget includes €13.5 billion for research and innovation, of which mainly €12.7 billion for Horizon Europe, the Union's flagship research programme, down by €100m on 2024.
With high inflation and financing subsidies to chip makers under the European Chips Act under Horizon Europe and through redeployment from other programmes, this is a significant cut in real terms for research projects.
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There is also the same €4.6 billion for European strategic investments, with €2.8bn for the Connecting Europe Facility to improve cross-border infrastructure, €1.1 billion for the Digital Europe Programme to shape the Union's digital future, and a 10% boost to €378 million for InvestEU for key priorities which include research and innovation, twin green and digital transition, the health sector, and strategic technologies.
The EU budget for space is also static at €2.1bn in 2025, mainly for the European Space Programme, although there is an additional €196m for secure satellite connections under the new Union Secure Connectivity Programme.
The EU budget for 2023 was €189m with €12.8bn for Horizon Europe, with €4.6 billion for European strategic investments, with €2.7bn for Connecting Europe, €1.3 billion for the Digital Europe Programme and €348 million for InvestEU.
The annual budget for 2025 will have to be formally adopted by the Budgetary Authority before the end of the year.