EU leaders reach agreement on 2014-20 budget
The European Union's negotiations in Brussels have resulted in a multi-year budget for 2014-2020. For the first time the EU is imposing a real-terms cut in budget spending.
The Horizon 2020 (H2020) budget will be significantly below the 80 Billion euros proposed by the European Commission.
The proposal of the European Council (November 2012) had a budget of 140bn euros for Competitiveness (Horizon 2020 is the largest part of it) within a total EU budget of 972B euros.
However, the current agreement states a total amount of 960bn euros, with only 126 bn euros for Competitiveness. This means a clear decrease compared to the budget of 2013 for research and innovation.
960bn euros is the maximum amount that can be allocated to programmes during the budget period. What is actually spent is usually lower, as projects are cancelled or postponed.
Rumors to be confirmed say that some of the money allocated for H2020 may only be spent after 2020.
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