Leuven: The Horizon Europe budget for 2028 to 2034 would shrink by 9.6% under the negotiating box that the Irish Council presidency tabled on 10 October 2026. The reduction amounts to €16.8 billion against the €175 billion that the European Commission proposed in July 2025, and it has already set researchers, rapporteurs in the European Parliament and some governments against one another.

The cut does not stand alone. The same box trims the European Competitiveness Fund by 11%, Erasmus+ by 4% and nuclear research under Euratom by 10.6%. An earlier compromise from the Cypriot presidency had reduced Horizon Europe and the Competitiveness Fund by 4%, so the new text more than doubles the proposed reduction for the Horizon Europe budget.

Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s minister for EU affairs and defence, presented the plan as part of a wider package that lowers the overall long-term budget by roughly 8% against the Commission’s proposal. Research is one of several lines that absorb the savings, alongside external action and parts of the competitiveness agenda.

Parliament’s reaction was swift. Christian Ehler of the EPP and René Repasi of the S&D, the two Horizon Europe rapporteurs, argue that an absolute majority in the chamber is needed to approve the budget and that cutting Horizon Europe will cost votes. Parliament asks for at least €200 billion in current prices for the Horizon Europe budget, which is €25 billion above the Commission’s figure. Its chief budget negotiator, Siegfried Mureșan, argues that new own resources are essential for an adequate research budget.

Member states are divided as well. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the figures are not a good basis for negotiation and that the budget must stay affordable for its main funders. Germany and other net payers favour a smaller EU budget, while seventeen governments led by Italy and Romania want a larger one that prioritises cohesion and agriculture. Research ministries sit awkwardly between the two camps because the Horizon Europe budget is one of the few lines where national and European priorities coincide.

The figures will serve as the basis for trilogue negotiations among the Council, the Commission and Parliament, and Parliament has threatened to vote against a Council proposal it considers inadequate. For universities and laboratories, the practical question is timing. The successor programme starts in 2028, so calls, work programmes and bridging arrangements for the transition depend on how quickly a deal arrives. A late agreement on the Horizon Europe budget would leave a gap between the last calls of the current programme and the first calls of the next.

Until that deal arrives, the Horizon Europe budget remains one of the most contested lines in the whole financial framework. Research bodies will keep arguing that a smaller programme means fewer funded projects, while governments under fiscal pressure will keep asking what the EU can afford.