The Slovenian Presidency has a full agenda on R&I and education topics – including the setting up of the foundations for the new European Research Area.
On 16 July 2021, the European Commission (EC) presented its proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe. The proposal states that a lot has been achieved by past efforts to create a European Research Area (ERA), especially in the case of research infrastructures, Open Science, and the mobility of researchers, among others. Nevertheless, in line with the Communication of September 2020 on the new ERA (see SwissCore article), the EC makes the case that “more needs to be done”. As R&I policies are for the most part national competences, the EC highlights that the new ERA “relies to a great extent on national policy reforms and national initiatives”.
This is where the ‘Pact’ comes into play, as the respective EC proposal defines values and principles, and identifies areas, where Member States can jointly develop priority actions, supporting in this way the implementation of the new ERA. The proposal for the ‘Pact’ maintains the R&I investment targets of the 2020 Communication: Member States should reaffirm to spend 3% of GDP (combined public and private investment) and 1.25% of GDP (public investment only) by 2030 in an EU coordinated manner. Furthermore, the proposal foresees several areas of joint action between the EC and the Member States, for instance on ‘deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge’ or ‘advancing concerted research and innovation investments and reforms’.
Creating the foundations of the new ERA by setting up its content, policy cycle and governance is a centrepiece of Slovenia’s Council Presidency priorities in R&I. It is currently expected that the Council Recommendation on the Pact for R&I in Europe as well as the governance for the new ERA can by adopted by Council in late 2021, still before the end of Slovenia’s Presidency on 31 December. The implementation of the new ERA was also a key topic during the informal COMPET Council meeting on 19 July in Slovenia. Other important ERA topics that will be addressed mainly through events in 2021 are research infrastructures, careers with a focus on young researchers, synergies between research and education as well as research ethics. Also in the ERA context, but due to their importance given a special focus, are the efforts to ensure gender equality in R&I.
Initial reactions to the EC’s proposal are mixed. While Science Europe welcomes the ‘Pact’ in general, the umbrella association of 38 European funding organisations also calls on the EU and Member States to follow through with higher investments in research – and to better include the research community in the development and implementation of ERA policies. The new ERA should not be restricted to EU countries and also the UK and Switzerland should be included in its development. The ERC concludes that the ERA has made limited progress since its launch in 2000. The ERC deplores the limited investments in research across the EU – 2.19% of GDP in 2018 – and calls for sufficient room for frontier research. While the United States continues to invest massively in R&I and China became a global leader in science, “the performance of the EU has been stagnant” since 2000, the ERC notes.
Progress on the new ERA and ensuring gender equality constitute two of the Slovenian Presidency’s priorities in the R&I field. Two other topics are of great importance too: European Partnerships within Horizon Europe and international cooperation in R&I. On European Partnerships, the Slovenian Presidency strives to conclude negotiations on legislative acts covering the establishment of institutionalised partnerships, including the partnership on metrology, and the nine Joint Undertakings regulated in a Single Basic Act. On international cooperation, the Presidency will strongly emphasise cooperation with Western Balkan countries on R&I. Work in the Council will focus on the accession of third countries to the Horizon Europe programme and the preparation of the response to the EC’s Global Approach to Research and Innovation (see SwissCore article).
On education, Slovenia plans to move new ways of learning and teaching, especially in the context of the digital transformation, to the forefront. This will include a focus on the development of digitalisation, artificial intelligence and ethics in educational processes contributing to the implementation of the Digital Education Action Plan (see SwissCore article). A Council Recommendation on ‘Blended Learning for High-Quality and Inclusive Primary and Secondary Education’ will address the need of the respective education levels to increase inclusion and the adaptability of the education system.
As part of the implementation of the Plan for the Transformation of Higher Education, Slovenia foresees to improve cooperation between higher education and science by harnessing synergies between the European Education Area (EEA) and the new ERA. This should also be achieved by further developing the European Universities Initiative. Moreover, the Slovenian Presidency plans to renew the European Agenda for Adult Learning. Related topics Slovenia aims at tackling are micro-qualifications, individual learning accounts and access to vocational education and training and lifelong learning. In youth matters, the new Presidency is in charge of the Council’s response to the EC’s report on the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy. Slovenia wants to focus on the implementation of the EU Youth Dialogue and volunteer mobility, as well as cross-border solidarity.
Slovenia took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 July and will be followed by France from 1 January 2022.