"In designing the next EU budget, we must have a sober look at the reality: we have several new essential priorities that need to be funded. We have conflicts at Europe's external borders, trade with our closest allies is rapidly changing, and we have to repay our RRF borrowing". This was the main message of ECR SEDEC Coordinator Ádám Karácsony during the debate on the European Research Area with Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.

European research efforts should be concentrated where they can deliver real value: in supporting industrial innovation, revitalising the defence sector across the EU, facilitating a just transition, and achieving technological sovereignty by promoting technological neutrality. "We cannot afford to spread funding across too many small projects with limited outcomes", said Mr Karácsony who underlined how, instead, it is necessary to "prioritise synergies with industrial policy, skills development, and regional strategies to avoid duplication and inefficiencies".

The European Research Area should be more modernised, focused, and integrated and able to deliver measurable value to Europe's economy and its people. "Let's move from fragmentation to strategic purpose, from proliferation to performance", Mr Karácsony concluded.