Brexit: EU shuts UK out of £77bn Horizon research scheme over 'trust' issues

The UK has been blocked from a leading EU research programme after threats over the Northern Ireland protocol and triggering of Article 16 meant the EU do not ‘trust’ the Government.

Several non-European Union countries, including Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Israel, Bosnia and Serbia have been granted an associate membership of the Horizon programme.

The UK’s membership of the £77bn programme was agreed during previous Brexit negotiations but remains to be formalised.

A spokesperson for the European Commission had told The Telegraph: “The UK’s association to Horizon Europe and other EU programmes will be finalised in due course. This requires a level of trust that the attached conditions will be complied with.”

Concerns have been raised by sources within the UK Government that accuse the EU of trying to exert leverage in ongoing negotiations by ‘going slow’, with some suggesting the progress of the UK’s membership admission into Horizon should have begun in May of this year.

UK threats to trigger Article 16 and override the Northern Ireland protocol are likely to have led to a situation now being perceived as retaliation for British actions.

The £77bn Horizon programme was expected to receive a £15bn contribution from the UK towards the seven-year project, over £2bn a year, to allow British scientists and researchers to maintain access to funding.

Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol can be worked in a different way, the Prime Minister has insisted.

Boris Johnson said there remained a need to convince the EU to agree to changes to how the contentious post-Brexit Irish Sea trading arrangements operate.

Commenting during Prime Minister’s questions at Westminster yesterday, Mr Johnson reiterated his threat to suspend elements of the protocol – by triggering the Article 16 mechanism – if an agreed resolution is not arrived at.