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August 9, 2026

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The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

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Horizon Europe Faces Sharp Cuts In EU Budget Talks

Moise Kean
Senior Reporter, Research and Innovation

Brussels: Negotiators tightened the screws on Europe’s flagship research programme this week, as the Cypriot presidency of the EU Council circulated figures on 18 June 2026 that would cut the next Horizon Europe budget from the Commission’s proposed €175 billion to €167.9 billion. The reduction, tabled just as EU leaders met on 18 and 19 June, reignited a fight over how much the bloc is willing to spend on science in its 2028 to 2034 long-term budget.

What the new figures show

The Horizon Europe budget for the next Multiannual Financial Framework would shrink by just over €7 billion under the presidency’s working paper. The programme, to run from 2028 to 2034, is being restructured around four pillars, with the first pillar alone earmarked at roughly €44 billion to strengthen the EU’s scientific base. The headline cut is modest in percentage terms but symbolically charged, coming after years of warnings that Europe is losing ground to the United States and China on research intensity.

  • Commission proposal: €175 billion
  • Council presidency working figure: €167.9 billion
  • Pillar I for fundamental science: about €44 billion
  • Programme period: 2028 to 2034

Why researchers are alarmed

University associations and research bodies have spent the past year lobbying against any erosion of the Horizon Europe budget, arguing that even the €175 billion figure fell short of what the bloc needs to remain competitive. A cut, however small, sends the wrong signal to laboratories and start-ups weighing whether to base their work in Europe or elsewhere.

“Every euro shaved off the research budget is a euro that competitors elsewhere will happily spend,” one senior figure at a European university network warned, capturing a frustration widely shared across the sector.

The wider budget battle

The squeeze on Horizon Europe is part of a larger struggle over the EU’s post-2027 finances, in which research competes with defence, agriculture and cohesion for a slice of a constrained envelope. The Commission has floated folding parts of the programme into a new competitiveness fund, an idea that worries scientists who fear basic research will be raided to pay for industrial priorities. You can read the detailed budget proposals for the full breakdown.

How we got here

The Commission published its FP10 and MFF proposals in July 2025, setting the €175 billion benchmark and introducing the fourth pillar. Since then, member states have picked over the numbers, with frugal capitals pushing for restraint and research-heavy countries defending the original figure. The presidency’s number is not final; it merely frames the discussion as leaders begin the hard bargaining that will stretch into 2027.

What happens next

The Horizon Europe budget will now move through the standard legislative process, with the European Parliament and the Council negotiating toward a final deal expected late in 2027. Parliament has already signalled it wants a larger, ring-fenced research line rather than a fund that blends science with industrial policy. For now, the €167.9 billion figure stands as a marker of how tight the coming negotiations will be, and of how easily Europe’s stated ambition to lead in science can collide with the arithmetic of its budget.

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