The EU's long-term budget process is governed by a multi-year agreement called the Multi-annual financial framework (MFF).
The next long-term EU budget period begins on 1 January 2021 and will last for a total of seven years until the end of 2027. The UK is due to leave the European Union at the end of January 2020 and will, under EU regulations, be considered a third country.
The European Commission has published proposals for funding programmes that will run during the 2021-27 MFF. Negotiations on these funding programmes are currently ongoing at EU level.
The proposals for funding programmes show there are a number that are likely to be open to third country participation in the EU budget period 2021-27.
The UK could negotiate to participate as a third country in these programmes, but would need to abide by the conditions set out in the appropriate programme regulations. The conditions are likely to include making a financial contribution to the programmes, however, it is currently unknown what level of contribution the UK would be required to pay to participate in individual programmes.
Participation as a third country would result in the UK lacking the capacity to influence the content and operation of the funding programmes in comparison to its current status as a Member State.
It is not certain at this time which funding programmes the UK might negotiate to enter beyond 2020, nor whether negotiations will have concluded in time to allow participation in the programmes from their outset in January 2021.
It is also not certain what role the Scottish Government may have in any negotiations with the EU.
It is not certain at this time whether the UK will seek to participate as a third country in all the EU funding programmes identified in this briefing; and whether negotiations would be completed in time to allow for UK participation at the outset of each programme in January 2021.
If negotiations are not concluded until after the 2021-27 programmes have begun, it is uncertain how this may impact on the UK's participation as well as the calculation of its financial contribution.
The unfavourable consequences of reduced participation in the life of a programme has been highlighted by Switzerland's temporary exclusion from the Horizon 2020 programme in 2014. As reported in an article on the Science|Business website, the President of the research council of the Swiss National Science Foundation revealed in September 2019 that the:
number of research projects its scientists participated in "dropped from 4,300 to 300 and we're still catching up and suffering". 1
As also reported in the article, the European Commission has indicated that negotiations with third countries for funding programmes post 2020 are likely to begin in 2020. The article reports that this is causing concern for third countries who may wish to participate in specific EU funding programmes, noting that as of September 2019, at least 24 countries were:
considering joining Horizon Europe, but first want to see the membership terms that the law would spell out [...] The ultimate cause of the delay is Brexit. When (or if) it leaves the EU, the UK is expected to join the queue of non-EU countries seeking Horizon membership. The Commission has not wanted to show its negotiating hand to any other country lest that prejudice the difficult negotiations with the UK. But at the same time, EU leaders can't finalise the Horizon legislation until they know the size of the budget, and again, that depends on whether the UK is in or out of the EU. 1
It is likely that the UK's intentions towards participation as a third country in EU funding programmes post 2020 will become clearer as the new UK Government agrees its position in relation to EU programmes.