The U.K. is set to re-enter the European Union’s flagship scientific research program, according to two people familiar with discussions, the biggest step by the U.K. to tighten ties with the bloc since Brexit.
An announcement is expected as early as Thursday morning after months of negotiations between the two sides over how much Britain will pay to participate in the 95.5 billion euro, or about $102 billion, Horizon program, which funds research and innovation projects in the EU and beyond. U.K. and European universities had lobbied hard for Britain’s return.
The move is the latest sign that Britain and Europe are mending fences after years of friction over Brexit, a rapprochement that began with close collaboration over the Ukraine war. Britain is also hoping to boost its stagnant economy by reducing trade friction with the bloc, which it formally left in 2020.
Relations have improved significantly under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which in February reached a deal with the EU to end a trade feud over Northern Ireland. After that agreement, both sides said they would look for opportunities to deepen ties, including rejoining Horizon.
A spokesman for the British prime minister pointed to Sunak’s statement earlier Wednesday to Parliament that he had been “extensively involved” in talks to resolve the Horizon issue.
The efforts to make nice come as a narrow majority of the British public express remorse over having voted to leave the EU, as they struggle with high inflation and the prospect of years of low growth. A YouGov poll in June showed that if a Brexit referendum were held today, 55% of Britons would vote to remain in the bloc. Back during the Brexit referendum in 2016, 52% voted to leave.
Despite any regrets over Brexit, the likelihood of Britain rejoining the EU soon is small, say political analysts, and isn’t being touted by the nation’s two biggest political parties. The focus instead is on making Brexit work as well as possible and limiting the economic damage from trade barriers with the U.K.’s main trading partner.
Before the U.K. left the bloc in 2020, British universities and research centers were among the most active participants in the program, receiving a net contribution from the EU of close to €1 billion for Horizon projects in 2019, according to EU figures.
Since Britain left, the U.K. government issued over 2,000 grant offers worth £1.05 billion, or about $1.3 billion, to researchers to keep them funded while the negotiations with the EU continued. The funding was due to expire this month.
Rejoining Horizon is a political win for Sunak, who has managed to forge closer ties with Europe without sparking any meaningful revolt within his Conservative Party, analysts say.
Despite the closer ties between the UK. and its former trade partners, however, there still remain ongoing trade frictions between Britain and the bloc that are likely to remain until the next election in Britain. Polls show the opposition Labour Party, which has long supported closer ties with the EU, far ahead of Sunak’s party. Opposition leader Keir Starmer has said he has no intention of reversing Brexit.
Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected] and Max Colchester at [email protected]
