In light of the upcoming Midterm Review of the EU budget and EU policies, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution on synergies between Horizon 2020, European Structural and Investment Funds, and other European support schemes on the 6th of July.
Statistics show that 90 percent of the Horizon 2020 investments go to the old Member States, whereas for the European Structural and Investment Funds 80 percent of the investments end up in the new Member States. “Different funds, different regions, so it seems. It is not a good sign that young people move away from the new Member States. Rich regions profit, whereas others are stagnating. Europe stands for a balanced development and strong territorial cohesion”, said Lambert van Nistelrooij.
Next year the Commission will come forward with proposals for the Midterm Review and revision. “Synergies between the European Structural and Investment Funds and Horizon 2020 will be one of the main issues during the upcoming mid-term review and the future FP9. We need to find a way how to use the available money more efficiently and maximise the impact of investments. The European Parliament already laid the groundwork for the creation of synergies and now this issue must be intensified”, said Christian Ehler. “The Commission should come forward with a new innovationdesign during the Midterm Review. The EU needs to strengthen the chain of knowledge, innovation in products and services in the whole of Europe. The ESI Funds do this with 60 billion Euro, whereby smart specialisation is the basis for sharing knowledge, open innovation and collaboration”, MEP Van Nistelrooij concluded.
