‘Stories from 2050’ offer new insights, the EU launches the Global Gateway initiative, and is progressing on association – without two longstanding partners.
Just before 2021 draws to a close, the European Commission (EC) offers a glimpse into a future beyond 2022. On 9 December, the EC’s Joint Research Centre published ‘Stories from 2050’. The booklet contains stories and narratives of various thinkers and writers about possible futures – it is part of the EC’s strategic foresight efforts, using the expertise of Europe’s research community to strengthen the preparedness of EU institutions and policies for alternative future scenarios. Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General for Research and Innovation, commented, “creative thinkers, science fiction authors, visionaries, futurists and entrepreneurs of all kinds have always inspired research and innovation, economic and social change.” The ‘Stories from 2050’ cover five thematic areas: Food & Agriculture, Oceans, Climate Change, Sustainability & Technology, and Social Change. The part on ‘Food & Agriculture’ includes a vision of a self-sufficient Europe spanning co-op network, illustrated through the example of a village in the Swiss Alps in 2050 that relies on the ‘internet of life’ and managed to make “long-term life more valuable than short-term exploitation”. Paquet identifies one common message in the booklet: “To look for a second Earth is an important ambition but the most important pursuit is to safeguard the one Earth we have.”
Safeguarding the one Earth, combined with the EU’s geopolitical interests, is the content of the Joint Communication ‘The Global Gateway’, adopted on 1 December by the EC and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Global Gateway initiative plans to tackle the most pressing global challenges, from climate change and protecting the environment, to improving health security and boosting competitiveness and global supply chains. The initiative plans to mobilise the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as well as the private sector to invest into infrastructure in low and middle income countries. It is the new initiative’s objective to “boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport and strengthen health, education and research systems across the world”. It is foreseen that the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes contribute to the education and R&I aspects of the initiative. Rolled out in coordination with the Group of 7’s (G7) ‘Build Back Better World’ initiative, the EU’s Global Gateway will compete with the Chinese ‘Belt and Road’ initiative.
While the EU’s new programme generation 2021-2027 is up and running, the focus is now on implementing them. One main outstanding task is to finalise the association of third countries to programmes like Horizon Europe, a process that is already advanced – although the two largest international partners during the Horizon 2020 programme (in terms of participation), Switzerland and the UK (at the time still an EU Member State), are still awaiting progress. Switzerland currently participates as a non-associated third country in Horizon Europe. The UK has already an association agreement, which is part of the 2020 EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Only the related Protocol needs to be adopted by the joint EU-UK Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes, in order to formally associate the UK to Horizon Europe. Meanwhile, negotiations are concluded with most of the 20 countries that formally expressed an interest in association. Only in the case of Morocco and Canada, negotiations are not yet concluded. For nine countries, association agreements are already in force. The EFTA and European Economic Area (EEA) countries Norway and Iceland were the first countries to be formally associated to Horizon Europe in late September. They were followed by Turkey and Moldova, whose association agreements went into force on 27 November. On 6 December, the agreement entered into force for Israel, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and for Serbia. Georgia followed on 7 December.
In the case of Switzerland’s association, EC Vice President Maroš Šefčovič who is responsible for relations with Switzerland and the UK at EC level, underscored in mid-November, following the visit of Switzerland’s Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, that association to EU programmes remains linked to the Swiss-EU relationship as a whole for the EC (see SwissCore article). Next steps include the drafting of a common agenda in the second half of January 2022. The EC expects, according to Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, a political commitment by the Swiss government to tackle open structural issues in the bilateral relations. These issues include for the EC “the dynamic alignment with EU law, a level playing field between Switzerland and the EU, a functioning dispute settlement mechanism, but also Switzerland’s regular financial contribution to the EU cohesion policy for the future”. On 10 December, the European University Association (EUA), in a statement endorsed by the EUA Council, representing 34 European national university associations and national rectors’ conferences, noted that “the current standstill in the association of Switzerland to the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programmes is disadvantageous for both Switzerland and the European Union in terms of lost opportunities.” EUA is calling to “disconnect negotiations on Swiss participation in EU programmes from the wider institutional and political negotiations”. In the meantime, Switzerland’s status as non-associated third country still allows for participation in collaborative projects, and transitional measures are in place for some mono-beneficiary programmes. It remains the goal of the Swiss Government to fully associate Switzerland to Horizon Europe.