Political groups at the first European Parliament meeting named the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) they delegated to the committee for industry, research, and energy (ITRE), which will have the most impact on parliament’s decisions for the upcoming €94.1 billion Horizon Europe research programme.

The new chair of ITRE is due to be elected on 10 July, and the committee’s first regular meeting will take place 22-23 July. European People’s Party sources say its chosen candidate for ITRE chair is Adina-Ioana Vălean of Romania’s National Liberal Party. Previous rapporteur Christian Ehler is entitled as new group coordinator for ITRE. The position of first vice chair is tipped to go to Zdzisław Krasnodębski of Poland’s Law and Justice Party.

The ITRE member of Latvia is Ivars Ijabs, a professor of political science at the University of Latvia. Ijabs agrees with the basic ‘spreading excellence and widening principle’, through which the EU aims to drive up the quality of the science infrastructure in lagging countries, by what Ijabs described as “homogenous development” in research capacity. But rather than Horizon Europe money, he told cohesion funds can be used for that purpose. There should be no geographic division in Horizon Europe. “Research policy shouldn’t be a social policy for not-so-innovative researchers,” Ijabs said. 

All article can be found in Science|Business® news

A complete list of the new members can be found here.

Share