{"id":433413,"date":"2025-07-29T19:27:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/07\/29\/i-ventisette-sono-divisi-sulla-sospensione-dei-fondi-horizon-per-israele\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:53:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:53:46","slug":"eu-member-states-divided-on-the-suspension-of-horizon-funds-for-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/07\/29\/eu-member-states-divided-on-the-suspension-of-horizon-funds-for-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"EU member states divided on the suspension of Horizon funds for Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – As the accusations of genocide<\/strong> pile up against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong>, responsible for the ongoing carnage of more than 21 months in the Gaza Strip<\/strong>, the European Union is struggling to take concrete actions to put pressure<\/strong> on its Middle Eastern ally. Member states have discussed the Commission’s proposal to partially suspend funds from Horizon+<\/strong>, the EU programme financing academic and industrial research inside and outside the Union, but divisions among the capitals<\/strong> have already emerged. <\/p>\n

The actions of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong> (wanted by the International Criminal Court<\/strong> for war crimes and crimes against humanity <\/strong>since last November<\/a>) are receiving increasingly heavy criticism both from Tel Aviv’s international partners\u2014even Donald Trump<\/strong>
\nexpressed doubts<\/a>. on the Middle East ally’s most recent moves\u2014and from Israeli NGOs themselves, who now
\ntalk openly of genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Yet, despite proclaiming itself a champion of rights and law, the EU has still failed to take concrete and truly effective measures<\/strong> against the Jewish state to induce it to end the slaughter of Palestinians in the coastal enclave. A month ago, the European External Action Service (EEAS)<\/strong> confirmed<\/a> the violation of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement<\/strong>, which requires respect for fundamental human rights and international law<\/strong> by Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The rubble after the Israeli attack on Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, on 10 November 2024 (photo: Omar Al-Qattaa\/AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

The report came as the revision process of the agreement<\/strong> in question was already underway<\/a>. As a reaction to that finding, the twelve-star executive  approved last night <\/a><\/span>(28 July) a proposal interpreted primarily as a political signal, namely the partial suspension of funds<\/strong> disbursed to Israel under the Horizon+ programme<\/strong>, with which Brussels supports academic and industrial research<\/strong> in the Member States and some third countries. <\/p>\n

More than a harsh sanction, however, it appears to be little more than a cosmetic measure<\/strong>: if only because, as Berlaymont officials confirm, the funds already allocated in the current EU budget<\/strong> for current projects are not touched, and only a stop from 2028<\/strong> is mentioned. It is difficult to see how Tel Aviv could feel under pressure to end hostilities as of now<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Today, the ambassadors of the EU-27<\/strong> held an initial round of talks to launch the discussion on the issue<\/strong>, but the usual divisions have already emerged. According to EU sources, a group of countries, led by Germany<\/strong>, is pulling the brakes<\/strong> while at least a dozen are in favour of a stop<\/strong>. A qualified majority<\/strong> is needed to approve it: at least 55 per cent of the member states representing at least 65 per cent of the EU population.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (photo: Alexandros Michalidis via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

If this is ever achieved, the ban will apply to companies<\/strong> based in the Jewish State working on disruptive innovations and emerging technologies<\/strong> with potential dual-use applications<\/strong>, which will not be allowed to apply for subsidies from Brussels under the so-called European Innovation Council Accelerator<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The EU executive estimates that, if the stop had already been in place for the current budget period (2021\u20132027)<\/strong>, the ‘frozen’ funds for Israel would now amount to around EUR 200 million<\/strong>, i.e., approximately 22 per cent of the \u20ac900 million<\/strong> that Tel Aviv has received from the Horizon+ programme over five years. <\/p>\n

The Commission speaks of an “appropriate and proportionate measure<\/strong>” and emphasises that there is a “special urgency<\/strong>” to react to the increasing devastation in Gaza. There are no similar historical precedents<\/strong> of total or partial suspensions of Horizon+ funds. The cases of <\/span>the United Kingdom<\/strong> and <\/span>Switzerland,<\/strong> which saw their taps closed between 2020 and 2023 and between 2021 and 2024, respectively, are different because those freezes occurred while <\/span>London and Bern were not formally associated<\/strong> with the programme.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Member States’ ambassadors discussed the Commission’s proposal, but did not agree on the desirability of proceeding with the stop of research funding for Tel Aviv<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":433258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710,25707],"tags":[25890,27224,31278,28382,26868,31839,25795],"class_list":["post-433413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","category-world-politics","tag-benjamin-netanyahu-en","tag-coreper-en-2","tag-horizon-europe-en","tag-human-rights-en","tag-sospensione-fondi-horizon-en","tag-stripe-di-gaza-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433414,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433413\/revisions\/433414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}