Research agreement
Blockade with the EU: Switzerland is increasingly relying on other partners
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After the EU excluded Switzerland from its Horizon Europe research program, other partners are coming to the fore, says State Secretary Martina Hirayama.
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Martina Hirayama is State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation. (Archive image)
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The Horizon Europe research program blocked by the EU for Switzerland is just one of many international programs in which Switzerland is involved. This was said by the State Secretary for Education, Research and Investment Martina Hirayama in the Saturday broadcast of Radio SRF.
There are partnerships with the USA, Japan and South Korea as well as China and Russia. According to Hirayama, they should be further strengthened and expanded regardless of any new EU association. Israel is also very interested in research collaboration with Switzerland.
Six billion would be ready
There are also bilateral research agreements with several EU member states. This cooperation is also helpful when it comes to the relationship with the EU. For example, it gave up its plan to only work with EU institutions in the fields of space travel and quantum mechanics, because the scientific community in the EU insisted on close cooperation with Great Britain, Israel and Switzerland.
Nevertheless, the end of the association is regrettable, said Hirayama. After all, Switzerland has already spoken six billion francs for the project. There is also no legal or material justification for the EU’s decision to suspend cooperation. The connection is purely political. “I hope we can untie this knot,” said Hirayama.
After the negotiations on the institutional framework agreement were broken off, the EU Commission blocked Switzerland’s full participation in “Horizon Europe”, the world’s largest research program with a budget of 95 billion. Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis wants to address the issue during his visit to Maros Sefcovic, Vice President of the EU Commission on November 15th. (wap)
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