Education, research, and innovation play a crucial role in the Spanish Presidency priorities – as well as in the Commission’s 2023 Strategic Foresight Report.
On 1 July, Spain took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU from Sweden. The Spanish Presidency marks the start of a new Presidency trio together with Belgium and Hungary that will last until the end of 2024. The new Presidency is focusing on four broad priorities, which include many linkages to EU education, research, and innovation policies and programmes: Reindustrialising the EU, advancing the green transition, promoting greater social and economic justice, and strengthening European unity.
The Presidency’s outline of the first priority, ‘reindustrialise the EU and ensure its open strategic autonomy’ recognises the downside of openness during the era of globalisation: “This openness has also facilitated the offshoring of industries in strategic sectors, thus making the EU excessively dependent on third countries in areas such as energy, health, digital technologies and food.” The geopolitical, technological, and environmental changes are now changing the situation. The Presidency plans to approach the situation in a two-pronged way: On one hand, the “development of strategic industries and technologies in Europe”, combined with strengthening of international value chains, especially with Latin America – a collaboration prioritised by the Spanish Presidency in general. A key occasion to strengthen these ties took place already on 17 and 18 July, during the summit of EU leaders and their counterparts from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Brussels. The declaration of the summit stressed the wish to continue work on the EU-CELAC Joint Initiative on R&I, and the importance of cooperating to promote a responsible, human-centric, values-based, and inclusive model of digital transformation. On the other hand, the Presidency plans to build on the Versailles Declaration of 2022, agreed by Member States in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition to supporting Ukraine and reaching energy independence, the declaration focused on building a stronger economic base (see SwissCore article). On the priority of ‘advancing the green transition’, Spain plans to accelerate the legislative files related to Fit for 55, such as the Gas and Hydrogen package, and the energy efficiency regulations. Related to Horizon Europe, the Presidency plans to advance the Commission’s proposals on European missions and research projects. A special focus will be devoted to the updating of the legislative basis of the Partnership on Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), enabling this programme to be extended until 2027, and thus facilitating its renewal within the next multiannual financial framework. Furthermore, Spain will facilitate consensus on Council Conclusions addressing three main issues: the role of science in public policies; that of regional and local innovation-oriented ecosystems in strengthening territorial cohesion; and the impact of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Mechanism on R&I and sectoral policies, consolidating the European Research Area, as well and research infrastructure funding. During the Spanish Presidency, the activities on the European Year of Skills will continue as well as the legislative processes on key digital topics, such as the Artificial Intelligence Regulation, which could directly impact research. The European Parliament agrees that the new law should have exemptions for the research sector (see Science Business article).
6 July saw the publication of the EC’s 2023 Strategic Foresight Report, this year with a focus on how to put ‘sustainability and people’s wellbeing at the heart of Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy’. The report suggests ten concrete policy responses to achieve this objective, with a handful of them including at least an indirect link to education, research, and innovation. The report starts with an overview of current trends and developments, including the rise of geopolitics and a related reconfiguration of globalisation, the ever-increasing need for more sustainability – and the growing demand for the respective skills and competencies (see SwissCore article). The Foresight Report suggests a further deepening of the Single Market to champion a resilient net-zero economy, with a focus on Open Strategic Autonomy and economic security. This should for instance be achieved by further developing “tools to assess future dependencies across strategic sectors (e.g. health, food, digital technologies, energy, space, water)”. Moreover, the EU should keep safeguarding the level playing field for market participants, including strong linkages between market access and high sustainability standards. Sustainable business models should be incentivised and sufficient support for the rapid development and deployment of net-zero technologies should be ensured. Linked to this goal are two other policy proposals: Supporting shifts in production and consumption towards sustainability via targeted regulation and moving “towards a ‘Europe of investments’ through public action to catalyse financial flows for the transitions”. Then, with a strong focus on education and training, the EC proposes to ensure that all Europeans can contribute to the transition by increasing labour market participation and focusing on future skills. Especially also relevant for education and R&I, the EC suggests to strengthen cooperation with key partners, including via the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. Last but not least, the EU should complement civil protection with ‘civil prevention’ by reinforcing the EU’s toolbox on preparedness and response: “The Emergency Response Coordination Centre should be further developed to become a core node linking all relevant EU crisis management actors (e.g. HERA)”.
On 9 July, the EU Commission (EC) and New Zealand signed the agreement for the partial association of the country to Horizon Europe, in particular its second pillar, which was negotiated in 2022. The agreement will be provisionally applied as soon as both sides notify each other on its approval according to their respective internal processes. In the case of the EU, the European Parliament does not consent to the agreement in its current form as MEPs would be cut out of negotiations on association to future framework R&D programmes (see Science Business article for context).
On 29 June, the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), in its opinion on EU-Switzerland relations, welcomed the ongoing exploratory discussions between the EC and Switzerland since March 2022, expressing its belief that these discussions could provide an acceptable basis for negotiations that could lead to a framework agreement covering all the structural issues addressed by the various bilateral agreements. The opinion also underlined “that all interested neighbouring and like-minded countries, including Switzerland, are welcome to be associated to the Erasmus+ programme, thus contributing to European education systems and to the strengthening of the European Education Area as a whole”. The opinion constitutes CULT’s input for the EP’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) motion for an EP resolution on EU-Switzerland relations, drafted by Lukas Mandl (EPP/Austria). The draft report from April calls on the EC and the Swiss government to use the “opportunity for talks on a possible new negotiation package and to reach an agreement before the end of the term of the current European Commission and European Parliament”. The draft also includes a chapter on research, underlining “the importance of EU-Switzerland cooperation in research and development” and the respective cooperation in Union programmes. After the vote in the AFET committee on 18 July, the indicative plenary sitting date for the initiative will be 11 September.