UK demands access to EU science programmes after being ‘excluded’ despite post-Brexit deal

LONDON will today demand that the European Union reopen the UK’s access to EU scientific programmes.

The UK’s Europe minister will urge Brussels to unblock access to the programmes for British researchers, which it says is provided for in the post-Brexit trade deal.

London says that involvement in Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation funding programme, as well as nuclear regulator Euratom and the Copernicus satellite monitoring group, were part of a post-Brexit trade deal.

It says that considers the UK’s exclusion to be a “breach of the post-Brexit deal”.

Minister for Europe Leo Docherty will today meet with EU representatives at the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly to discuss this, and monitor the implementation of the post-Brexit trade deal, reports Euronews.

UK Europe minister Leo Docherty says "UK cannot wait much longer" to join Horizon Europe (in row over NI)

“The UK’s participation would be a clear win-win for the UK and the EU…
"The EU’s approach is causing intolerable uncertainty for our research and business communities.”

— Lisa O'Carroll (@lisaocarroll) November 7, 2022

“The UK’s participation would be a win-win for the UK and the EU, but the UK cannot wait much longer,” Docherty will say.

“The EU’s approach is causing intolerable uncertainty for our research and business communities.”

Elsewhere, Docherty will praise EU-UK cooperation over the response to the Ukraine war.

In August, the UK launched a formal appeal against the EU, accusing it of freezing British institutions out of the scientific research programmes due to the continuing row of Northern Ireland.

As it stands, the Brexit deal recognises Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market and customs union so that there will be no return of a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

At the time The UK government said in a statement that it had activated “a mechanism set out in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to resolve disputes between the UK and EU.”

It said it made the move “in an effort to end persistent delays to the UK’s access to EU scientific research programmes, including Horizon Europe”.

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