We now know the broad themes of the incoming Framework Programme Horizon Europe, and there will be 5 of them. The new €94.1 billion programme will focus on climate change, cancer, oceans, carbon neutrality, and food.
The European governments finally came on an agreement on the 19th of February after a hard debate between the State members. For this reason, the exact titles have yet to be discussed and clarified, a stage which may take some time as countries disagree on the details.
While Hungary and France both want to focus on a particular kind of cancer, respectively lung cancer for Hungary and childhood cancer for France, landlocked countries from central Europe fear to be kept out of the “ocean” theme if inland waters are not included.
This debate is not the only one linked with Horizon Europe: indeed, the Council wants to change the legal basis of the programme so that only States could make Framework Programmes into law and not the European Parliament and States as it is now.
Both debates should however not create any schedule issue, as Horizon Europe is expected to start only in 2021, after the end of Horizon 2020.
