Austria will hold the Presidency from July to December 2018. This comes at the end of the trio presidency composed of Estonia, Bulgaria, and Austria, based on the European Council’s “Strategic agenda for the Union in times of change” of June 2014.
The Austrian Presidency will have to deal with the key negotiations regarding the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU (Brexit) and the Multiannual Financial Framework post-2020.
During the next 6 months, the Presidency will focus on security and the fight against illegal migration; securing prosperity and competitiveness through digitalization; and building stability in the European neighborhood while developing the EU perspective of the western Balkans/south-eastern Europe.
It is a special point in time because Europe is facing a number of parallel challenges:
- The proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 was published on 2 May 2018.
- The ”Horizon Europe” package proposal was adopted by the Commission on 7 June 2018.
- The second half of 2018 marks the final phase of the Brexit negotiations.
- The European Parliament’s legislative term ends in March 2019, with the EP elections following in May 2019, and with a new Commission to be in place by November 2019.
The Austrian presidency priorities in the field of research, technology, and innovation (RTI) are the following:
- Negotiations on Horizon Europe, the 9th EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation
- Council Conclusions on ERA, building on the ERAC Review of the ERA Advisory Structure
- Support for Sectoral Policies (e.g.: Defence Research, Joint Undertaking High Performance Computing, European Open Science Cloud, European University Networks Initiative etc.).
Austria’s first presidency objective is the negotiations on Horizon Europe. The Austrian Presidency will launch the negotiations in Council and is planning to progress as far as possible.
Austria’s second presidency objective deals with the European Research Area. The Council Conclusions on ERA that the Austrian Presidency will propose after the ERAC Plenary in September 2018 in Salzburg will address a number of issues, such as the outcome of the current ERA advisory structure review, strategic intelligence produced by the Commission, as well as other thematic elements, all paving the way for the future of ERA under FP9.
Due to the fact that research and innovation are playing an ever more important role in many other policy areas, the third objective of the Austrian Presidency will be to support these sectoral policies. The Austrian Presidency team in the field of research believes that the challenges of our time need modern governance, that is, more cooperation between all policy areas. This does not mean that Austria will negotiate all these items, but the Austrian Presidency intends to take an integral view and support ongoing negotiations in other Council formations in Brussels, as well as through Presidency events in Austria.
On 6 June 2018, the Austrian Federal Government presented in Brussels the programme for the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Political and cultural events are also planned.
Dates for the official meetings at the ministerial level:
- 10 July 2018: Hearing of Minister Faßmann in EP’s ITRE Committee
- 16-17 July 2018: Informal meeting of Research Ministers in Vienna
- The first exchange of views on FP9 proposal at the political level
- 27-28 September 2018: COMPET Council (Research) in Brussels
- Negotiations on FP9 proposal
- 30 November 2018: COMPET Council (Research) in Brussels
- Negotiations on FP9 proposal – depending on progress: Partial General Approach or progress report(s)
- ERA Council Conclusions
More information on the EU Austrian Presidency can be found on the official AT PRES website
