EU Wants UK To Pay £15B Before Joining Horizon Europe Project

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who took over from Lord Frost as Brexit negotiator after he resigned on the weekend, has been told by science leaders that being cut out of the £80-billion European Union (EU) research and innovation project would "greatly disadvantage" British science.

Photo Insert: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss took over from Lord Frost as Brexit negotiator after he resigned on the weekend.

Britain was told it cannot participate in Horizon Europe until it resolves the Northern Ireland protocol issue and the fishing license dispute, despite UK involvement being part of the Brexit deal, Jacob Paul reported for the British newspaper Express.

The Wellcome Trust joined scores of other health industry voices earlier this month who signed the European Health Stakeholder Group’s letter which urged the EU to let Britain participate in Horizon Europe as soon as possible.

The UK was supposed to make a £7 billion annual contribution to the project and £15 billion in total so British scientists could access the EU's huge pot of funds. Now, science leaders are worried that if Truss fails to strike a deal, it would leave UK participation off the cards entirely. They argue this is a serious threat to the future of British science.

Truss has said she wants to strike up a “comprehensive solution” to the Northern Ireland protocol, the agreement which requires post-Brexit checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

But she was warned by Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for home affairs, that EU member states have a “limited” appetite to make agreements with the UK.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, told BBC News: "Losing the agreement on UK participation in the world's biggest international science funding program at this stage, when it has already been negotiated and is ready to sign, would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

While it's natural for the government to plan for the worst-case scenario, we have to realize that any UK-only scheme would greatly disadvantage our scientists compared to the international opportunities that Horizon Europe opens up, with both the EU and many other countries that take part in it, such as Israel or Norway."

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