Lords to debate report on Brexit and UK participation in the Erasmus and Horizon programmes
The House of Lords will this afternoon debate the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee's report on Brexit: the Erasmus and Horizon Programmes.
The debate is being moved by Lord Jay of Ewelme the Chairman of the Committee and Viscount Younger of Leckie will respond on behalf of the Government.
The debate is expected to begin at around 5.30pm.
The Committee called on the Government to clarify its plans for future UK access to the EU's international mobility and research programmes, ‘Erasmus ' and ‘Horizon 2020', and successor arrangements which are due to start in 2021.
The Committee found that participation in these programmes provides clear benefits to the UK beyond simply grant funding, including access to networks, connections, and opportunities to collaborate with European partners built over decades of close cooperation. It would be a formidable challenge – and risky - to try to replicate these benefits at a national level. The Committee therefore calls on the Government to see full UK participation in the successor programmes, as an associated third country.
In a ‘no deal' scenario, the Government has said it would underwrite funding to preserve the UK's access to these programmes until the end of 2020. However, contingency plans recently published by the EU would only allow continued UK participation in projects that have already started before exit day, and (for Erasmus) up to a maximum of 12 months. The Committee urged the Government to explain how this would be administered and how it would replace major research funding schemes not open to non-EU and non-associated countries: the European Research Council grants and Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions, which account for about 44% of total UK receipts from Horizon 2020.
Other members listed to speak include:
