European Parliament wants more money for research and innovation

The Parliament voted on the matter last week. The aforementioned amount would be on top of the budget of 12.2 billion euros proposed by the European Commission proposed earlier. Although that's good news for the scientific community, the additional funds won’t be made available that easily.

In fact, the EU council (comprising the leaders of the member states) was looking to cut a similar amount from the proposed EU budget. The Parliament and the Council have an equal say on the budget.

Negotiations
So now they have to reach a joint agreement. Representatives of the Parliament and the Council are going to negotiate over the next three weeks in order to come out with a joint text. If everything goes well, the text will be confirmed by both the Parliament and the Council.

The Association of Dutch Universities (VSNU) tweeted that these developments are positive and calls on the Parliament to “stand firm on this position”.

If the negotiations fail or if the Parliament rejects the outcome, the European Commission (EU's ‘government’) will have to come up with a new proposal. But if the government leaders on the council reject the joint text, the Parliament has the final say: it can still give its approval.