Public consultation on EU funds in the area of investment, research & innovation, SMEs and the Single Market

As part of the preparations, the Commission launched a series of public consultations on the priorities of the EU that should be reflected in the next MFF.

Among the five public consultations launched by the Commission, one is of particular interest for the research world: the public consultation on EU funds in the area of investment, research & innovation, SMEs and single market. The online questionnaire seeks feedback on:

• The most important policy challenges that have already been identified;
• To what extent the current policy successfully addresses these challenges;
• The EU added value when it comes to programmes and funds;
• The obstacles which could prevent the current programmes/funds from achieving their objectives;
• The steps that could help to further simplify and reduce administrative burdens for beneficiaries under current programmes/funds;
• The synergies among programmes/funds.

In parallel, four other consultations cover EU funds in the areas of values and mobility, cohesion, strategic infrastructure and security. The consultations, which are running until 8 March 2018, are open to all citizens, organisations and stakeholders with an interest and/or involvement in issues related to investment, entrepreneurship, research, innovation and SMEs are welcome to respond to this consultation. The questionnaire can be found here. The Commission will publish the replies shortly after the end of the consultation period.

Background

The MFF sets the limits for the annual budgets of the EU, over a period of at least 5 years. It determines how much in total and how much for different areas of activity the EU could use each year. The recent MFFs covered 7 years, with the current one covering 2014-2020.