Shortly, the EU will have to face the loss of UK’s €11B annual contribution, the second biggest contribution after Germany. Günther Oettinger, EU Commission budget chief, affirms its willingness to avoid cuts to research programmes, if any reduction is needed to be introduced. Commissioner Oettinger comes from a region in Germany, Baden-Württemberg, that spends 5% of its GDP on research. Same position was taken by the EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas, who hopes to see an increase of EU research and innovation spending on the next EU budget cycle.
Other solutions may be introducing cuts to other EU programmes, increasing contributions from net contributors such as Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden, or introducing financial or environmental taxes as a new source of revenue.
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