On 13 March, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Chrisitan Ehler presented his draft report on the regulation establishing Framework Programme 10 (FP10). The lead rapporteur’s proposal introduced significant changes to the European Commission’s initial publication, drawing strong reactions from both parts of the research community and the European Commission, as negotiations are set to intensify in the coming months.

Amongst the main changes, Ehler established the creation of two councils within Pillar II, appointed for five years – one on industrial competitiveness and technology, and the other on societal challenges. This proposition aims at clarifying the governance structure and the interaction of the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) with Horizon Europe. The councils would oversee expert teams composed of four to six specialists from academia or industry for each broad thematic research priority, which would be responsible for drafting calls and managing project portfolios. This idea had first been put forward by the high-level expert group tasked with conducting a mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe and with providing recommendations for FP10 chaired by Manuel Heitor but had notably not been integrated in the European Commission’s proposal in July 2025.

However, during a discussion with the members of the Parliament’s committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 24 March, Marc Lemaître, Director General of the European Commission’s research and innovation service (DG RTD), expressed his scepticism, stating that the proposed councils would create additional complexity. In his view, coordination would be costly and would undermine the Commission’s implementation prerogatives. Instead, he committed to working on the Commission’s version of the governance in the coming weeks and advocated for stakeholder involvement through a planned “Observatory of emerging technologies”, a strategic stakeholders board in the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), and “thematic platforms”.

Another key sticking point highlighted by the draft report concerns the organisation of the ECF’s and FP10’s Work Programmes (WP). While the European Commission proposed establishing common ones, gathering Pillar II activities in the ECF’s WP, Ehler asked for separate Work Programmes for Horizon calls, with specific activities under the ECF dedicated to scaling up Horizon Europe results, drawing mix feedback from the EU research community. The decision to have separate Work Programmes, joint Work Programmes with separate budgets within, or a single WP is likely to heavily influence the future coordination between industrial and research and innovation policies.

MEPs from the ITRE Committee are now expected to table amendments to the draft report until 9 April, before putting the resulting compromise text to a Committee vote in September. Once approved, it will be submitted to the EU Parliament plenary, likely in October. In parallel, Research and Innovation Ministers in the Council of the European Union are expected to vote on a partial general approach on FP10 on 29 May. Once both institutions reach a position, interinstitutional negotiations will follow. Against this backdrop, EERA will continue monitoring future developments, and will remain actively engaged in ensuing discussions on the interaction between FP10 and the ECF, which will be central to boost Europe’s low-carbon energy research and innovation, as well as the deployment and uptake of clean and competitive technologies.