The European Commission has published its proposal for Horizon Europe, an ambitious €100 billion research and innovation programme that will succeed Horizon 2020. Last night, the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture voted for the opinion on this programme with a clear majority, especially supporting an increase in funding for the research programme for Food and Natural Resources’ innovations to €10 billion.

 

 

“Our food system is not sustainable. Support for research and innovations in this field is needed when currently there are 800 million people already starving on this planet and ¾ of the world’s food production is produced with only 12 plant species”, stated the Finnish rapporteur of the opinion MEP Elsi Katainen.

 

The Committee also wanted to add the word ”agriculture” in the title of the fifth cluster and to include inland waters into the subparagraph which currently mentions only seas and oceans.

 

“Agriculture is a relevant part of food production and much can be done to ensure more sustainable use of natural resources. Inland waters are part of aquatic environments: without clean inland waters we cannot have clean seas and oceans.” ALDE MEP underlines.

 

The AGRI Committee opinion also promotes a mission for the programme and new targets to tackle climate change: Carbon neutral, resilient, nutritious and zero-waste food systems by 2035.

 

“This mission summarises everything we want to promote: research and innovation that contribute to the SDGs, have synergies with CAP and bio economy strategy and provide new business opportunities for European companies and small producers.”