The Commission is proposing to increase the amounts provided for research and innovation, education and SME development. The proposal foresees to allocate €80 billion for the 2014-2020 period to the Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation ("Horizon 2020"), to be complemented by support for research and innovation in the Structural Funds.

In the communication it is further stated that "the Commission's ambition for the next EU budget is to spend differently, with more emphasis on results and performance, concentrating on delivering the Europe 2020 agenda through stronger conditionality in cohesion policy and greening of direct payments to farmers. The next budget should be modernised by reallocating resources to priority areas such as pan-European infrastructure, research and innovation, education and culture, securing the EU's external borders and external relations policy priorities such as the EU's neighbourhood. It addresses cross-cutting policy priorities, such as environmental protection and the fight against climate change, as an integral part of all the main instruments and interventions."

More information is available at: EC Financial Programming and Budget

Source: era.gv.at