The EU Health Coalition Calls For A Horizon Europe Budget

The fresh financial blueprint put forward by European Council President Charles Michel outlines that the funding to research and innovation will amount to €84.013billion[1]. This proposal is in contrast with the European Commission’s request to allocate €100 billion for Horizon Europe and with the European Parliament’s call for an increased funding under Horizon Europe.

Ahead of a special European Council Summit (20 February), the EU Health Coalition urges Member States to negotiate and adopt a Multiannual Financial Framework as well as a Horizon Europe budget which echo Europe’s ambition for innovation in research.

The EU Health Coalition recognises the urgent need for a political agreement in order to overcome the suspension of current EU programmes and delays in new ones. However, we are deeply concerned that a budget cut of Horizon Europe would put the EU’s strategic plans on hold. Also, we fear that this would undermine the fragile equilibrium between priorities and global challenges under Horizon Europe, and that the EU budget for health research would be jeopardised.

Horizon Europe will build on previous EU framework programmes to be the EU’s flagship to support research and innovation and will have a key role to play in fostering a coherent, internationally competitive European research landscape. By doing so it will ensure the development of new, safer and more effective interventions and treatments for patients across Europe. The EU manages only one-tenth of the public research investment, but is the major funder of impactful, collaborative and transnational research. Collaborative research is needed to foster knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship and partnerships between academia and industry, and to maintain Europe’s competitiveness. Therefore, the EU Health Coalition calls upon the EU Institutions to secure a strong support for biomedical and health related research. Sound measures accompanied by a ring-fenced EU budget dedicated to health research are a must in order to ensure that outstanding basic research leads to the necessary impact in the real-world setting and improves patients’ lives.

Background information:
Within the EU Health Coalition, a dedicated Research and Innovation policy group has proposed recommendations with the aim to enhance the health research landscape in Europe. The proposed recommendations call for an increased EU budget for health research, setting-up a cross-sectorial health research Public Private Partnership and better coordination and support for health research.
The EU Health Coalition was created after the 1st EU Health Summit, which took place in November 2018, to ensure continued cooperation between stakeholders in the field of health. The EU Health Summit addressed emerging and persisting challenges such as the burden of chronic diseases and the consequences of an ageing population for the health sector. Simultaneously, the summit discussed new innovations and technologies that show huge potential in transforming healthcare and enhancing sustainable health systems. The EU Health Coalition is composed of patient organisations, EU research-oriented medical societies, industry representatives and other relevant stakeholders that share a common vision for health.

This statement is endorsed by:

[1] €80.9 billion with an additional €3.11 billion for research and innovation to come from the InvestEU program

Article Source: https://www.euhealthcoalition.eu/news/the-eu-health-coalition-calls-for-a-horizon-europe-budget-reflective-of-europes-ambition-for-an-innovative-and-competitive-research-landscape-warning-a-budget-cut-would-jeopardize-eu-health/