Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002760/2025/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 144
András Gyürk (PfE)
On 5 May 2025, the Commission announced the ‘Choose Europe’ initiative. According to statements made by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, this programme, with a budget of EUR 500 million, intends to attract researchers to Europe from countries outside the EU. However, the Commission failed to reveal the exact source of funding for this initiative. Furthermore, based on the Commission’s legal proposal, the Council implementing decision (EU) 2022/2506, prohibits 21 Hungarian universities and one Austrian university from receiving European research and development and innovation (RDI) funding. In practice, this significantly hinders these universities’ participation in Horizon Europe, even as consortium members.
- 1.Can the Commission clearly identify all the budgetary sources that are funding this programme, and what criteria does the Commission intend to use to award the grants?
- 2.Does the Commission consider the introduction of a new funding programme for researchers outside the EU while denying EU-based researchers access to European RDI funding a fair practice?
- 3.Can the Commission unequivocally state that funding originally allocated to support EU-based scientists and research is not being reallocated to researchers from non-EU countries?
Submitted: 7.7.2025