Budget worries cloud Europe’s science plans

Abstract

Britain’s current presidency of the European Union is overshadowed by worries about the budget in the face of rejection of the new constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands. But the Commission is pressing ahead with science funding plans and its proposal for a new European Research Council. Nigel Williams reports. Britain’s current presidency of the European Union is overshadowed by worries about the budget in the face of rejection of the new constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands. But the Commission is pressing ahead with science funding plans and its proposal for a new European Research Council. Nigel Williams reports. Britain has taken over the presidency of the European Union at a particularly hard time. Tony Blair, the British prime minister, has ambitious plans to modernize the EU’s £80 billion budget following the constitutional problems in referendums held in France and the Netherlands earlier this year. Britain wants to shift EU spending away from farm subsidies, which dominate the budget, to areas that offer greater potential of creating new jobs, such as science. At issue is the planned budget for 2007–2013 but a row over next year’s budget has led to Britain being accused of double standards. As Jacques Chirac insisted he would block any reforms, the European Commission hit out at a British proposal to cut spending next year on research. “The rhetoric does not match the reality,” said the commission’s budget spokeswoman, Ewa Hedlund. Her remarks came after Britain unveiled plans to cut £306 million from the research budget next year. Ivan Lewis, the treasury minister, called for the cuts when he chaired a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels last month to discuss next year’s budget. In June, Europe’s summit collapsed after Britain called for EU spending to be shifted away from areas such as farming in favour of job-creating areas such as research. The commission, which was angered by a British change of tack after Blair signed up to a deal on farm spending in 2002, took delight in pointing out Britain’s inconsistency. In a briefing note it said that the British presidency wanted to cut next year’s budget by £0.8 billion. This would mean job-creating initiatives losing £368 million, with the majority — ‘a severe cut’ — of £306 million going from research. But Britain said ministers wanted to cut research spending because the Commission had been unable to spend all of last year’s money. “We accept that this is a priority area, but since you are already underspending, we don’t believe they’ll be able to spend more of it,” an official said. “It is unhelpful and unfortunate that the commission should choose to single out one country when, as presidency, we are representing the whole council and this is an agreed council position.” Meanwhile the Commission has announced the 22 founding members of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, which will oversee the ERC’s scientific strategy and forms a key part of its Framework 7 research strategy. The ERC represents a new venture for Brussels that seeks to support the best researchers in the EU, a plan that many hope will survive the current budget wrangles.