[1]
Press release
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION WANTS CO-DECISION FOR INDUSTRY ON HOW TO SPEND
€10 BILLION OF EU PUBLIC RESEARCH MONEY
_Brussels, 12 April 2021_
SEVERAL INDUSTRY EU LOBBY GROUPS ARE ABOUT TO BE ENTRUSTED AGAIN THE
PRIVILEGE OF CO-DECIDING HOW €9.6 BILLION OF PUBLIC EU RESEARCH FUNDING
SHOULD BE USED, IN RESEARCH AREAS AS ESSENTIAL AS HEALTHCARE,
TRANSPORTATION, ENERGY, BIOMASS-BASED MANUFACTURING PROCESSES OR IT
INFRASTRUCTURES.
A new analysis [2] by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) shows that the
European Commission is proposing to member states to expand the highly
problematic model of EU Joint Undertakings, very large industry-driven
public-private research partnerships (PPPs) introduced in 2014, in the
EU’s new research funding programme Horizon Europe (2021-2027).
In a regulatory proposal to the member states, who will have the final word
on it , the European Commission’s DG Research (RTD) proposes the creation
of nine new Joint Undertakings, with a total budget representing 10% of the
total EU research budget, and chose to let industry draft again these
PPPs’ 10-years strategy and detailed annual plans.
CEO showed in a May 2020 investigation [3] that this was the main reason
why participating private companies had been able to influence so much the
work of two of these PPPs (the IMI [4] and BBI [5]).
The consequences were that while these structures had funded a vast array
of research projects to develop products, technologies, and processes
primarily for the benefit of the companies involved, benefits for public
health, people, and the environment were much less taken into account in
the programming or the evaluation (1). Industry groups have a veto power in
these structures, and can block proposals from the European Commission they
would not approve of.
CEO had also found in one Joint Undertaking that industry partners, who had
to co-finance the operational costs of projects, simply refused to pay what
they had committed to. The solution adopted by the European Commission to
this problem is surprising: reward the private sector for not keeping its
promises. Not a single Joint Undertaking proposal among the nine new ones
provides for a financial contribution by industry to operational costs any
more. The public sector is the only one paying for these costs, and
sometimes twice.
MARTIN PIGEON, RESEARCHER & CAMPAIGNER WITH CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY,
SAID:
“These proposed Joint Undertakings are supposed to be public-private
partnerships, but would you accept a partner who only does what s.he wants
and does not contribute financially to your common projects? Accepting
these Joint Undertakings’ creation as proposed by the European
Commission’s DG Research would divert €10 billion from Europe’s
public research capacity at a time when investing in the production of
socially relevant knowledge and technologies is more needed than ever. We
urge EU member states to amend the regulation to stop this corporate
capture of EU research policy and funds”.
ENDS
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR INTERVIEW REQUESTS, PLEASE CONTACT MARTIN PIGEON:
mar...@corporateurope.org - +32 484 671 909
NOTES TO EDITORS:
(1) Examples of projects funded by these two Joint Undertakings included
how a cheaper manufacturing process for a key drug for helping people
living with HIV in Africa so far appeared to have only helped Sanofi’s
profits, or the chemicals multinational Clariant receiving millions of
euros to build a factory to turn enormous amounts of agricultural wheat
straw into biofuels (despite the fact that such ‘residues’ have other
important uses in farming and are important to nurture soils’ fertility
and sink carbon). And this is on top of minutes from an IMI Governing Board
meeting which indicated that Big Pharma had opposed a Commission proposal
to fund biopreparedness efforts including to speed up vaccine approvals.
Projects also included quasi-lobbying initiatives consisting in targeting
public regulators with policy proposals, PR work to win public acceptance
for new technologies.
(2) as with the Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking, where
participating states are to pay a hefty €1.7 billion on top of the €1.8
billion taken from the EU budget.
Corporate Europe Observatory,
https://crm.corporateeurope.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=5238&qid=920070 [6]
Rue d'Édimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 893 0930, e-mail: c...@corporateeurope.org
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