About ten days ago, on 8th of February, the European Council (consisting of heads of state of EU countries) reached an agreement on the new multiannual framework (MFF) for the budget cycle 2014-2020. This in itself is not a budget negotiation, but has three aims: (a) the limit of possible spending – the “ceiling”, (b) on what the money should be spent and (c) rules of where the expenditure is to come from. (read more about what you need to know about the MFF here).
These decisions have important impacts on the policy focus of the EU, and the emphasis of EU activities during the cycle, and as such have also important consequences for education as a policy sector, especially as the role of EU as a supranational policy actor in education has often been linked to their capacity to provide funding and administrative capacity. As such, a more constrained funding environment can also have consequences for the opportunities of EU to take this role in an active manner.
For the first time, the overall available expenditure was less than during the previous budget year. The overall ceiling was set as EUR 908.40 billion, compared to EUR 942.78 billion in the MFF 2007-2013, a reduction of 3,4% in real terms. However, in this context, education was clearly identified as a priority area, and the summary of the agreement provided by EU indicated that “EU leaders agreed on a substantial increase of the financial means for future geared expenditure such as research, innovation and education“. Furthermore, it is indicated that “the expenditure ceiling for sub-heading 1a (“competitiveness”) amounts to EUR 125.61 billion, which is an increase of more than 37% compared to the MFF 2007-2013“.
In addition, it was also indicated that both “Horizon 2020″ and “Erasmus for all” – the two overarching programmes for research and education respectively received increase in real terms. One could argue that this does show that in relative terms, education and research are amongst the areas that are prioritized. This was also expressed by Martin Schulz (the President of the European Parliament) who argued that “EU policies in the areas of research, education, training, foreign relations and development in particular generate genuine European added value. The European Parliament feels that making savings in these areas is misguided, because these forward-looking policies represent an investment in our ability to innovate in the long term and our competitiveness. They are an investment in a sound future for our children!”. However, one should also note that these are areas that do not receive the largest share of the overall EU pot in real terms.
Horizon 2020 is now replacing existing Framework Programme (view prezi), in addition to innovation related activities of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The main aim of this combination is to both streamline and simplify existing practices, and the initiative is seen as key in the “Innovation Union” initiative, one of the seven flagship projects of the Europe 2020 strategy. The proposed funding frame for 2014-2020 was €80 billion.
Erasmus for All is the new programme that was first presented in November 2011. Again, as is also the case with Horizon 2020, the new programme brings together a number of existing programmes: the Lifelong Learning Programme, Erasmus Mundus and Youth in Action. The three types of activities identified in the recently published factsheet include mobility of learners, cooperation on innovation and good practice and supporting policy reforms. The agreement is now in the process of finalization and the final version should be published before summer and put into action 1st of January 2014. The proposed funding frame was €18 billion.
While education and research were in relative terms seen as prioritized, the proposed funding frames were larger than the funding assured in the end, with specific figures being slightly under the proposed numbers. Recent UWN article quotes Dennis Abbott, the European Commission spokesperson for education who argued that for education it was “about 14% below our proposal, which means that around 700,000 people will miss out on an experience abroad under the Erasmus for All programme in 2014-20 compared with the commission’s proposal“. However, the stakeholder representatives quoted by UWN seemed in general relatively satisfied with the overall results, especially taking into account the context of financial austerity.
This indicates that education and research continue to be key areas for development in the EU. As the competencies of EU in these areas are varied, this raises questions about what kind of instruments are used and developed in the future.