The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the EU has always been one of the toughest battles the EU has to go through every seven years. This is due to the fact that with it are tackled the most important aspects of the EU development, education, innovation, research and society that will shape the future of Europe, dictating its strength/position on the global scale.

With less than one month left until the end of 2020, the EU is embarking in its last 2020 train towards the approval of the MFF for the period of 2021-2027. The MFF should have already been approved months ago if it would not have been for the Covid-19 crisis, that posed unthinkable weight on how the EU and the world will re-prioritize their agendas. In February 2020, one month before Covid-19 virus was declared a pandemic, the EU Heads of State held their first meeting specially dedicated to the MFF since the publication of the European Commission's proposal in May 2018. Despite intense preparations, and discussions lasting over two days, they failed to overcome their differences to find an agreement. Now, almost one year apart from that date, even if the discussions on the MFF have registered significant developments, no final agreement has been yet reached. The scientific community, among others, has serious concerns about the impact on R&D projects this process of stagnation will bring along.

Earlier last month, there were high hopes that the next research framework programme Horizon Europe, with a final budget of €84.9 Bn, could start on time, given the fact that the German presidency of the EU Council reached a historical agreement with the European Parliament on the MFF totalling €1.8 T of which €750 Bn for the Covid-19 recovery package, Next Generation EU[1]. Despite the wide approval of the deal by the rest of the EU-27 member states, Poland and Hungary blocked the approval of the MFF and the recovery package in protest against the new rule-of-law conditionality. The new rule of law mechanism allows the suspension of EU funds in case of misusing European money or breaching EU principles[2]. On that note, both countries voiced that this new rule is a threat on their “national sovereignty”.

The EU highest officials will have an end of the year summit in Brussels on December 10^th and 11^th in a final attempt to secure the starting of the Horizon Europe as well as the other financial instruments[3].

Even after the EU Council agreement, the whole process will still require yet a final vote from the European Parliament and then ratified by the member states at national level. If the MFF is delayed beyond 2020, the EU will have to function with a temporary budget as determined by Article 312(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU until the MFF is finally accepted[4]. This means that EU funding as a whole would work on the so-called provisional twelfths, which allows the EU executive only spend one-twelfth of the EU Budget for 2020. In particular, for the R&D, this poses legal problems since Horizon 2020 has a legal end. As a consequence, no new projects would be launched on the basis of the twelfths from January onwards, and only H2020 projects already running would still be funded as the money for these is provisioned as 'commitments'3. One plausible solution could be that the European Commission, tams to find a way for new projects to be allowed to receive twelfths in the same manner as other EU funding.

[1] Science Business, Horizon Europe gets extra €4B, as intense budget talks end, November 10^th 2020

[2] Euroactiv, Hungary and Poland veto stimulus against pandemic, November 16^th 2020

[3] Science Business, Five days to save 2021 research budget, December 2^nd 2020

[4] Carnegie Europe, Judy Asks: Can the EU Solve the Budget and Rule-of-Law Crisis?, November 26^th 2020