On the guidelines for the 2027 budget – Section III

PA_NonLegBud

OPINION

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Calls for an ambitious EU budget for 2027, reflecting the challenges facing Europe, including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and hybrid attacks on Member States’ critical infrastructure; underlines the need for investment in the defence industry and cybersecurity, combined with strong support for Ukraine and the eastern border regions of the EU that are most directly impacted;

2. Stresses the need to rapidly phase out energy trading with Russia and to reduce EU dependence on fossil fuels; calls for support for EU-produced renewable and low-carbon energies; insists on the need to invest in the resilience of the EU’s energy infrastructure; calls for increased funding for the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy to improve cross-border energy interconnectivity, energy grids and energy storage;

3. Calls for an investment boost to support EU industrial competitiveness and high-quality jobs, and facilitate strategic autonomy and decarbonisation, while securing EU supply chains for strategic sectors and improving access to critical raw materials, as set out in the RESourceEU Action Plan;

4. Insists on the need to support fundamental and applied research, foster collaborative research, and facilitate the scale-up and commercialisation of research results; regrets that the existing level of Horizon Europe funding is ultimately insufficient;

5. Requests increased support for small and medium-sized enterprises, mid-caps and start-ups, including greater assistance for them to scale up and compete globally;

6. Stresses that significant investments are needed to address the EU’s connectivity gap and other Digital Decade 2030 targets; calls for the development of European digital sovereignty;

7. Requests sufficient funding for the European space programmes, including skills development, considering the space sector’s importance for defence capabilities;

8. Calls for the adequate funding and staffing of EU agencies and bodies in the policy areas of industry, research, energy, space and cybersecurity, to cope with new tasks and to support skills development.