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News 29 June 2020

European R&I prepares for a busy summer


These are unprecedented times for the future of Europe and are therefore being particularly rich in terms of policy developments to monitor in Brussels. The combination of the need to boost the post-COVID recovery and the parallel preparation of the upcoming 2021-2027 EU budget and funding programmes has the potential to give a real boost to the achievement of the European Green Deal objectives.

The Commission proposal for a Recovery Fund (Next Generation EU) would mobilise €750 billion, divided into €500 billion of grants and €250 billion of loans. The proposal, currently being discussed by Member States, allocates additional money (€13.5 billion) to Horizon Europe, but still falls short to match the initial proposal supported by the European Parliament of €120 billion to finance the programme.

On a positive note, the Commission has confirmed its willingness to drive the economic recovery through sustainable, green investments and digital development. Therefore, the Climate, Energy and Mobility cluster under Horizon Europe will be one of the sections of the programme to directly benefit from the increased allocation of resources. EERA is following its preparation process and is directly involved in the preparation of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of the Clean Energy Transition Partnership.

The Commission’s activity in the framework of the European Green Deal continues to be a priority but is registering some delays and slight changes mainly due to the current health crisis. Among the various measures being developed, EERA is monitoring developments on the following:

  • European Green Deal Call for Proposal under Horizon 2020: the timeline and the descriptions of the draft call topics are publicly available here;
  • The assessment of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) that will play a large role in directing energy-related investments in the Member States during the post-COVID recovery phase;
  • Energy-related political strategies currently being developed regarding hydrogen, energy system integration, offshore renewable energy.

Further updates and additional intelligence on dossiers of interest to the energy research community are available on the EERA Policy Working Group webpage in the form of analytical presentations and weekly newsletters.