On the guidelines for the 2027 budget – Section III

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Calls for an ambitious EU budget for 2027, reflecting the challenges facing Europe, including the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and hybrid attacks on Member States’ critical infrastructure; underlines the urgent need to enhance the competitiveness of European industry and the need for investment in the defence industry, preparedness and cybersecurity, combined with strong support for the eastern border regions of the EU that are most directly impacted by the war, as well as sustained support for Ukraine, including through the integration of the Ukrainian defence technological and industrial base into EU instruments, in particular the European Defence Fund and the European Defence Industry Programme;

2. Recalls the need to secure Europe’s energy supply in a fast deteriorating geopolitical context; stresses the need to rapidly phase out all remaining energy imports from Russia and to overall reduce the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels; calls, therefore, for continued investment in resilient energy infrastructure and in renewable and clean energy production and supply chains in Europe to deepen the EU energy market and deliver affordable and secure energy to European citizens and businesses; calls for a renewed focus on the energy efficiency first principle by scaling up support for energy efficiency measures; calls for a significant increase in funding for the Connecting Europe Facility for energy infrastructure to improve and expand cross-border energy interconnectivity, smart energy grids and energy storage and to boost EU-based supply chains; highlights the need for both distribution and transmission grids to be further developed in Europe to achieve a more competitive, independent and complete energy union, for which sufficient funding is needed;

3. Calls for a boost in investment to support EU industrial competitiveness and high-quality jobs and to facilitate strategic autonomy and decarbonisation, while securing EU supply chains for strategic sectors by prioritising the development of the EU’s circular economy and improving access to critical raw materials, as set out in the RESourceEU Action Plan; notes the importance of cooperation and partnerships with like-minded countries on raw materials to secure more diversified supply chains to meet the EU’s growing demand; stresses, furthermore, the need for adequate funding to stay the course regarding the European Green Deal and the Clean Industrial Deal and to achieve the EU’s climate, environment and energy goals, including the targets set out in the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive; recalls the report by Mario Draghi on EU competitiveness of 9 September 2024 and emphasises the need for the post-2027 EU budget to focus on strategic priorities and scale up support for strategic investments, and on simplified access to funding;

4. Insists on the need to support fundamental and applied research, foster collaborative research and facilitate the scale-up and commercialisation of research results; deplores the persisting funding gap for innovation in private and public financing and calls for a more ambitious contribution in Horizon Europe funding; recalls that 2027 is the final year of the Horizon Europe programme and the proposed draft budget should therefore make use of all remaining appropriations, including the additional allocations for Horizon Europe stemming from Article 5 of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 of 17 December 2020 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027, and from the joint political statement on the re-use of decommitted funds in Horizon Europe; restates that any and all available decommitments stemming from Horizon Europe should be made available to the programme again; calls for maintaining stable funding for the ITER project;

5. Acknowledges the increasing challenges faced by the international research community, especially regarding climate, social and gender research; welcomes, in this respect, the Choose Europe for Science initiative; calls on the Commission to take urgent action to secure long-term accessibility to high-quality scientific data for the international research community, including climate, socio-economic and gender-related data; recalls that Parliament insisted that 45 % of the Horizon Europe Cluster 2 ‘Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society’ budget should be spent on the cultural and creative industries; notes that this percentage has not been achieved so far; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to increase funding for Cluster 2 and consider a revision to the 2026-27 work programme to make an increased amount available for cultural and creative industry projects; notes that the Financial Regulation allows for placing appropriations in reserve if the budgetary authority has significant concerns about the implementation of those appropriations;

6. Requests increased support from the EU budget for small and medium-sized enterprises, mid-caps and startups, including greater assistance for them to scale up and compete globally, particularly through the European Innovation Council;

7. Stresses that significant investments are needed to address the EU’s connectivity gap and to achieve the 2030 Digital Decade targets; calls for a stronger focus on increasing European technological sovereignty, specifically through the creation of EuroStack; highlights the need to allocate sufficient financial and human resources to ensure the robust enforcement of the digital acquis in order to strengthen the EU’s resilience; calls strongly for the EU, therefore, to maintain the same approach in tackling foreign interference, addressing the dangers of biased algorithms, and safeguarding transparency, accountability and the integrity of the digital public space;

8. Requests sufficient funding for European space programmes, including for skills development, considering the space sector’s importance for the competitiveness of the EU economy and for its defence capabilities;

9. Calls for adequate funding and staffing for EU agencies and bodies in the policy areas of industry, research, energy, space and cybersecurity, so that they can cope with new tasks and support skills development.

The rapporteur for opinion declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.