23 Sep 2026
Ten countries associated to Horizon Europe present joint statement on association to future EU programmes
Ten countries associated to the current EU Research Framework Programme have presented a 'Joint Statement on association to future EU programmes. The signatories include Australia, Canada, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The statement was signed by the ambassadors to the EU of the respective countries.
The joint statement highlights the benefits of association for Europe, such as strengthening Europe's global R&I capacity and competitiveness by widening access to talent, excellence, knowledge, research infrastructures, innovation ecosystems and markets; enhancing Europe's resilience and technological leadership by enabling trusted partners to address shared scientific, societal and geopolitical challenges together; or openness as a strategic strength. The signatories also emphasise the substantial scientific, strategic and financial contributions by Associated Countries to Horizon Europe, increasing the programme's scale, impact and global reach.
The joint statement therefore makes six strategic recommendations for the next generation of EU R&I programmes:
- Keep association at the heart of EU R&I policy, recognising it not merely as a participation mechanism, but as a strategic instrument that strengthens Europe's excellence, competitiveness and capacity to address shared societal challenges, thereby reinforcing its global leadership.
- Remain open by default, with restrictions applied only where justified through clear, transparent, risk-based and proportionate criteria.
- Provide a predictable and stable framework for association, enabling researchers, innovators, companies and public authorities to plan, invest and collaborate with confidence throughout the programme cycle.
- Enable speedy association from the start of the programme, including early and transparent pathways for negotiations, so that like-minded partners can contribute from the very beginning.
- Ensure meaningful, structured and predictable governance arrangements, enabling associated countries to contribute to strategic orientations and programme implementation in a way that reflects their scientific, strategic and financial contributions to the programme.
- Provide clear, transparent and consistent participation rules across the full programme landscape, including the ECF, ensuring certainty wherever successor instruments to Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme are implemented.
The signatories call for the next generation of EU R&I programmes to preserve association as an open, predictable and strategically integrated framework from the outset, and call on European institutions to ensure that the future legislative framework provides the conditions for timely, stable and meaningful association of like-minded partner countries.