UK-EU Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes consultations meeting, September 2022: UK statement

UK statement following the UK-EU Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes consultations meeting on 22 September 2022:

The second meeting of the Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes was held today in Brussels, co-chaired by officials from the UK Government and European Commission. Representatives from the devolved administrations and EU member states also attended.

The meeting followed the UK’s formal request for consultations on 16 August 2022. Consultations are a mechanism in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to resolve issues between the UK and the EU.

The UK is seeking to implement the mutually beneficial TCA agreement to participate in EU programmes (Horizon Europe, Euratom Research and Training, Copernicus, and access to services from the Space Surveillance and Tracking programme) to the benefit of researchers and businesses across the UK and the EU.

At today’s meeting, the UK once again requested that the EU fulfil its obligation to finalise the UK’s association to EU Programmes after 16 months of delays. It is regrettable that the EU continues to decline this request.

The UK has been clear that our preference remains association to EU programmes and that the EU’s persistent delays to finalising UK association amount to a breach of the TCA. We have set out that delays are causing considerable uncertainty for our research and business community and undermining scientific cooperation in both the UK and EU member states.

The UK government is now urgently considering next steps. Our priority is to support the UK’s world leading R sector and we have already outlined potential options for doing so.