The European Brain Council (EBC), as part of the EU Health Coalition, joins in expressing regret on the initial outcome of the European Council where health, research and innovation have been sacrificed in the overall budget negotiations.

We are following the situation and continued discussions closely as the European Parliament, on 23 July, voted on a resolution calling for improvements to the budget, noting disapproval of the cuts made to future-oriented programmes, risk of drops in funding for Flagship EU programmes (including those for health and research) and that, as of 2024, the “EU budget as a whole will be below 2020 levels, jeopardising the EU’s commitments and priorities”.

We await the next round of discussions to be held between the European Parliament and the European Council and will be releasing an official statement upon the finalisation of the budget, which at this stage we hope to see around October 2020.

We stand with our colleagues in the health and research communities and urge the Council to listen to the calls from the community and the European Parliament to address these cuts, learning from the current COVID-19 pandemic that health and research can no longer afford to be used as bargaining chips.

Read the full EU Health Coalition statement here.