EFFRA Welcomes Danish Presidency Programme

06 January 2012

BRUSSELS, 6 January – EFFRA has welcomed the ‘Presidency Programme’ published by the new Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The programme shows a clear recognition of the importance of industry to competitiveness in the European Union and recognises the importance of the Horizon 2020 framework programme proposal of the European Commission, negotiations for which will take place under the Danish presidency by making this a priority.

Echoing EFFRA’s continued drive to generate a greater involvement of industry through PPPs in EU research policy, the programme places an emphasis on ensuring that there will be more flexibility and simplification in Horizon 2020 in order to ensure an active involvement of industry.

“We strongly support this pro-active attitude towards Horizon 2020, notably its stance on working towards a greater momentum in the negotiations towards a joint position by the European Parliament and Council.” EFFRA Executive Director, Željko Pazin stated, “EFFRA believes that this attitude should be complemented by a strong position on the overall budget of Horizon 2020 taking the Commission’s proposed figure of €80 billion as the minimum required to ensure a secure framework programme”

The ‘Factories of the Future’ public-private partnership will continue under Horizon 2020, which is envisioned to run from 2014-2020 in line with EFFRA’s ‘Factories of the Future – Beyond 2013’ strategic research roadmap currently under development.