A leading MEP has welcomed the reversal of cuts to Horizon Europe but said the refusal to return more unspent funds to the oft-poached programme is unacceptable.

The European Union agreed the bloc¡¯s budget for 2023 just before a midnight deadline on 14 November, including a reinstatement of €663 million (?577.9 million) which had been cut from Horizon by ministers in the European Council.

The 2023 budget for the programme, which still needs a final vote of approval from MEPs, is €12.4 billion. ¡°I am happy we managed to reverse most of the bizarre cuts proposed by the council,¡± said MEP Christian Ehler, who represented the European Parliament¡¯s research committee for the three-week negotiations with EU finance ministers in the council.

¡°The council¡¯s position on the union budget is completely removed from the policy objectives the council decides on,¡± he said, giving digitalisation and climate change as examples where national governments had called for cuts to programmes designed to address them.

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¡°This cannot go on. If we want the Green Deal to succeed, we need to invest in Horizon Europe,¡± he said, referring to a raft of environmental investments and measures that is a centrepiece of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen¡¯s political programme.

As well as reversing the cuts for 2023, the deal adds a modest €10 million to the EU¡¯s doctoral and postdoctoral Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions programme, which was expanded this year with a €25 million funding call for researchers from Ukraine.

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The talks ended with €69 million in unspent money from the EU budget being rolled back into Horizon. The EU institutions have agreed that €500 million should return to the seven-year R&D programme in this way, although finance ministers and MEPs are split on whether the figure should be a maximum or a minimum.

Dr Ehler said there was still €650 million in unused funds that should have also gone back into the programme, calling the non-transfer a ¡°retroactive cut on research¡± and saying it ¡°cannot stand¡±.

No additional money was taken from Horizon to fund the Chips Act, designed to help boost EU semiconductor manufacturing. It caused controversy?earlier this year?when officials said they wanted to take €400 million from Horizon and replace it using unspent funds, rather than returning them to EU governments.

The parliament¡¯s budget committee will discuss the deal later this week, with the whole parliament set to vote on the agreement on 23 November.

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ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com