EU Missions On Track To Meet Their 2030 Ambition Towards a Greener and Healthier Continent

During their first two years, the EU Missions in Horizon Europe have supported the Commission’s work on the European Green Deal, making Europe fit for the Digital Age, and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. Since their inception, EU Missions have demonstrated their potential to accelerate change. Supported primarily by Horizon Europe funding, they have also connected and supported EU policies and programmes with local action and citizen engagement. They are on track to achieve their ambitious goals by 2030 in critical areas such as adaptation to climate change, improving the life of cancer patients, cleaning up the marine and freshwater ecosystems, making cities climate-neutral, and making soils healthy.

These are the conclusions of the Communication on EU Missions under Horizon Europe adopted today. The Communication provides a thorough assessment of progress so far, as required by the co-legislators after their first two years of operation. It highlights the main achievements of the current five individual Missions, while also identifying challenges they have encountered and proposing a set of actions to address these. In light of this balanced assessment, today’s Communication also proposes to spend 11% of the Horizon Europe Pillar 2 budget on EU Missions in the last part of the Programme (up from 10% currently). This corresponds to a total amount of over €3 billion for the period 2024-2027. It also launches preparations for a new EU Mission on the New European Bauhaus.

The Commission commits to make the EU Missions even more effective by for example:

• Intensifying discussion with political actors, notably Member States, on how to streamline EU Missions’ governance to make it more efficient, inclusive, and effective;
• Mobilising a broader portfolio of instruments to secure greater participation of the private sector, including public-private partnerships and the public procurement of innovation;
• Undertaking targeted actions to support local and national communication efforts to boost citizen engagement and raise public awareness of EU Missions.

Given the potential of the Missions instrument to galvanise change, and the fact that the New European Bauhaus initiative already shares several characteristics with EU Missions, the Commission today begins the preparatory phase for a dedicated new EU Mission, following the same process as for the first five. This includes the appointment of a Mission Board, and the drafting of a Mission Implementation Plan, both of which will help define the exact targets and milestones of the Mission.

The New European Bauhaus has already developed synergies between research and innovation investments, other funding instruments, and private sector investment. The new EU Mission would engage with people to build greater social acceptance for Green Deal policies, promoting social ownership of green solutions and encouraging behavioural changes needed to meet Green Deal targets. The Commission will work closely with the Member States and the community at large to define this approach.

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