Annexes to COM(2023)457 - EU Missions two years on: assessment of progress and way forward - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2023)457 - EU Missions two years on: assessment of progress and way forward. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2023)457 |
| date | July 19, 2023 |
The Mission is advancing harmonised soil monitoring in the EU and is developing strategies for soil decontamination and regeneration as well as new business models for soil friendly and climate neutral value chains. Through its support to carbon farming, the Soil Mission promotes cost-competitive monitoring, reporting, and verification tools for soil carbon removals.
The first Living Labs under the Mission will start in 2024 and will result in more than 200 testing sites for local experimentation in urban and rural areas. The Mission is reaching out to various audiences in novel ways, e.g. by involving cultural and creative industries and promoting the Mission Manifesto25. Looking beyond Europe, the Mission has become a major flagship for international cooperation with the Global Soil Partnership26, the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate initiative27, or with international R&I partners such as Japan, U.S., Canada and African countries.
6. Overall assessment of EU Missions
This sub-section summarises the assessment from the perspective of the Mission instrument as such, drawing some horizontal conclusions across the five Missions on the aspects required by the legal base: selection process, governance, budget, focus and progress to date. Since their inception, EU Missions have demonstrated a clear potential to accelerate change. With the help of Horizon Europe funding, EU Missions have connected and supported policies and programmes across the EU with local public engagement and implementation. The assessment confirms that Missions are timely and inspirational initiatives that provide new impetus to important EU policy priorities and help align EU, national, regional and local policy efforts towards shared goals.
Selection process: The assessment finds that the year-long Mission development process offered valuable opportunities to leading experts and a wide range of stakeholders to participate in the co-creation of Missions, for instance through their involvement in the Mission Boards and citizen panels. It also confirmed the continued relevance of the Mission Areas and of the EU Missions themselves.
Governance: Each Mission includes EU-level governance mechanisms. Governance is particularly important for a new instrument, and more so for one of this complexity, which is meant to bring together different constituencies, levels of government, scientific disciplines, and funding sources. These mechanisms include dedicated cross-sectoral steering and coordination bodies that enable new forms of collaboration across Commission services and across levels of government. Mission Managers and Deputy Mission Managers were appointed to steer each Mission with the support of Mission secretariats. Two waves of Mission Boards were selected to provide strategic advice and expertise (one for the design phase and one for implementation). There has also been important progress on governance at national level: several Member States established inter-ministerial taskforces and national mirror groups to better liaise with the Commission on national implementation. Member States have also mobilised EU programmes under shared management in support of the Missions. The assessment also found that the Mission governance is breaking organisational silos and bringing different organisations closer together in pursuit of the shared, timebound goals.
Budget: Important investments have been made under the Horizon Europe programme to enable the development of knowledge and innovative solutions to help meet the goals set by the EU Missions. So far, the European Commission has made available a total of EUR 1.8 billion in two subsequent work programmes (WPs 2021-2022 and WP 2023-2024), corresponding to 10% of the Horizon Europe Pillar 2 budget for the years 2021-23. All Missions have managed to get some level of interest and commitments from sources of funding beyond Horizon Europe, including the private sector (mostly via the EIB).
Focus and progress to date: The high number of citizen engagement initiatives organised during the preparatory design phase of the Missions helped to build societal ownership and encourage broad engagement of relevant stakeholder communities. The assessment suggests that through a strict focus on, and close alignment with, EU policies and strategies, the Missions are contributing to them in a worthwhile way. Beyond the EU level, EU Missions have managed to gather large stakeholder communities, including by building and engaging communities at the regional and local levels. In addition, the assessment suggests that the Missions are overall progressing in line with their implementation plans and appear to be on track to achieve their 2030 targets.
3. Outstanding challenges and improvements
As a novel instrument, Missions need political support as well as continuity and predictability, but also genuine evaluation and improvement. The assessment acknowledges these limitations, and the Commission is committed to addressing them, given that the initial promise of the Missions instrument has remained strong, and the five Missions show signs of working well. The recommendations in this section are the result of a reflection among Commission services, Mission Board Chairs and Mission Managers.
In addition to the encouraging early achievements outlined above, EU Missions are also facing a number of important challenges. There are several areas in which improvements can be made, including the sometimes-cumbersome governance setup, the rather limited leverage so far of funding beyond Horizon Europe, the suboptimal synergies with other EU instruments, the low involvement of the private sector, and communication efforts and outreach to stakeholders and citizens. All Missions have taken steps to address these issues, but additional effort – also on a horizontal level – are necessary. Addressing these challenges will only grow more important as Mission implementation moves along and the focus increasingly shifts to deployment and impact.
1. Improve the governance and political steer
EU Missions need sound steering and a strong governance system to be effective. While the assessment has shown that the system set up for EU Missions is promoting links across policy domains and across organisations, a number of other governance functions can be improved. The governance system is perceived by many stakeholders as being cumbersome, complex and lacking transparency. In addition, the governance system has not yet arrived at a coherent, consistent monitoring system for the Missions, both individually and as an instrument. The governance system is strongly focused on implementation and currently lacks a space for analysis and reflection on (lack of) progress and further instrument and policy development. The governance system also lacks sufficient room for high-level political discussions on progress and for re-orientation where needed.
A strengthened and better coordinated administrative governance is necessary to enable Missions to be effective. This type of ambitious, whole-of-government initiatives like EU Missions require the development of large-scale and cross-policy synergies over long periods and across the EU, national, regional and local levels in order to succeed. For example, coordination mechanisms between EU-level Mission representatives and national, regional and local level authorities should be reinforced to ensure Missions’ efforts are deployed as close as possible to EU citizens. It is also clear that strengthened political leadership should act as a clear signal to facilitate access to resources (including funding) and actions to progress towards the Mission objectives. The steering of EU Missions should therefore be further strengthened at the administrative level.
The Commission will:
- Invite all political actors involved, including the Member States, to nominate high level representatives to join the Commissioners responsible for the respective EU Missions in promoting Missions to citizens, mobilising national funds etc.
- Intensify discussions, notably with Member States, on how to streamline EU Mission governance to make it more efficient, inclusive, and effective.
- Significantly invest in strengthening joint support functions (‘back office’) for all current and future EU Missions and to address the limitations identified in this Communication.
- Initiate a yearly debate on the implementation of the EU Missions in the thematic Council formations and European Parliament committees relevant for each EU Mission.
2. Secure more and better co-investment, including from the private sector
A broader portfolio of instruments needs to be mobilised, with the Horizon Europe calls serving only as seed funding and orchestrators rather than the main instruments of deployment. The integrated approach to Missions requires strong co-ownership across the Commission and the Union, involving all relevant actors and stakeholders, including in the use of their funding instruments, as Missions need to cover the full innovation chain from lab to deployment at scale. The interdisciplinary nature of the governance mechanisms offers ample opportunities for building synergies between the EU Missions and other parts of Horizon Europe, the EU Missions and other EU instruments and the EU Missions and national, regional and local policies and funding programmes. The evidence gathered in this assessment shows that these opportunities have not yet been fully exploited.
Member States’ programming of EU funding needs to be aligned more closely with the EU Missions. This is an integral element of synergy building, for instance by making more systematic use of Cohesion policy for the EU Missions. Diversifying funding and financing sources to support a pipeline of activities from research to deployment is therefore another key challenge. For this purpose, very close contacts between the Commission services and the Member States’ managing and implementing authorities should be established.
EU Missions’ implementation is so far primarily funded by Horizon Europe and other sources of public funding. Yet, to achieve full impact by 2030 these funds need to be complemented by significant investments from the private sector and philanthropic organisations to ensure the deployment and replication of solutions at scale. While efforts are being made in this direction, the level of investment and involvement of these actors should be boosted.
Increased cooperation with the EIB is crucial to achieving the EU Missions’ goals. Throughout their preparatory and implementation stages, EU Missions have been working closely with the EIB, which has provided advisory services to support the development of the investment agendas of the Missions Implementation Plans. This collaboration should be scaled up, particularly considering the strong alignment of several Missions’ goals and the EIB’s objectives.
More effort is needed to raise the interest of the private sector in the EU Missions’ activities. The use of innovative instruments designed for the private sector, such as public procurement of innovation, has not been fully explored. Moreover, experience has shown that engaging with the European Partnerships, and in particular those with strong industry involvement, are effective ways to raise industry’s interest in EU policy priorities and how they can contribute to them. Joint calls between EU Missions and some of the co-programmed European Partnerships have already been launched. The launch of Mission-oriented and Mission-linked calls within the framework of existing and future European Partnerships would open more opportunities for engagement with industry. This will be complemented by a structured dialogue with main interest groupings of both industry and philanthropic organisations.
The Commission will:
- Intensify the work on EU Mission portfolio building and management to provide the Mission Managers with intelligent monitoring and intervention tools.
- Mobilise a broader portfolio of instruments, including public-private partnerships and the public procurement of innovation.
- Intensify discussions on alignment of Member States’ programming of EU funding with the EU Missions.
- Invite recommendations and advice on how to increase private sector involvement in, and contribution to, the EU Missions.
3. Enhance citizen and stakeholder engagement
Achieving the goals of individual EU Missions (and in general the ambitions of the EU) will ultimately hinge on the broad public support and acceptance of the necessary green and digital transitions. While the involvement of stakeholders directly engaged in the Missions has been quite effective, there is still scope for further incentivising broader awareness across the general public and direct engagement of civil society organisations and social partners, thereby living up to the promise and potential of Missions. Additional efforts are needed to raise awareness on Mission goals and impact, to strengthen stakeholder feedback mechanisms and to increase the visibility of the Missions and their concrete actions on the ground. To this end, communication efforts need to be significantly stepped-up towards relevant stakeholder groups and individual citizens.
There is still a lack of awareness on the benefits and potential of EU Missions as an instrument in the public. This is in spite of the relative success of individual EU Missions, who have been active in communication and awareness raising and in engaging affected stakeholder communities. Brand visibility for Missions as an instrument facilitates engagement of individual ones. The active and continued involvement of the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of Regions is also critical to increase public awareness and mobilise citizens.
The Commission will step up the use of targeted actions to jointly support Missions, including on awareness raising and communication. It will also strengthen the monitoring system for assessing progress in EU Mission implementation in a more quantitative and easier to comprehend manner. It will also prepare policy advice on the future of EU Missions, including on transition strategies towards the next EU long term budget. The experience of the current assessment, de facto very early in the lifetime of Missions, has shown the importance of a continuous overview of implementation parameters. The Commission commits to producing a further assessment report on the implementation of EU Missions in 2025 to take stock of progress, assess the adequacy of funding, identify achievements for future dissemination and replicate of innovative solutions coming from Missions.
The Commission will:
- Further engage with communication professionals as regards a strategy for a more citizen-based approach to EU Missions.
- Undertake targeted actions to support local and national communication efforts to boost citizen engagement and raise public awareness of EU Missions.
- Publish a new report on the implementation of EU Missions in 2025.
- Organise a public debate on the implementation reports. to draw lessons, discuss progress, and communicate achievements of the EU Missions.
4. Renewed impetus
The current five EU Missions have achieved substantial reach on the ground and will work further to consolidate and tackle remaining challenges. However, the assessment has also highlighted the opportunity to expand the Missions portfolio, and the need to reaffirm political and financial support for the instrument.
1. Launching a new EU Mission on New European Bauhaus
More than two years after its launch, the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative28 has made significant progress on its goal of connecting the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences. It has its own Community of over 1,000 members active across Europe and beyond, an advisory group made up of esteemed figures in the worlds of architecture, culture, design, and sustainability. And it is inspiring bottom-up projects and initiatives that test and demonstrate NEB ideas and actions.
The New European Bauhaus already shares several characteristics with the EU Missions. The current assessment exercise and the challenges it identified, as well as reflections in the NEB community and calls from the European Parliament29 indicate that it is now opportune for the NEB initiative to consolidate its progress, to consolidate its focus and rooting in R&I, and to gain focus in the form of a new dedicated EU Mission.
The launch of a dedicated NEB Mission will follow the same process as the first five. This includes the appointment of a Mission Board, and the drafting of a Mission Implementation Plan, both of which will help define the exact targets and milestones of the Mission, as was the case for the first five. This would consider the achievements and potential of the New European Bauhaus initiative so far, as well as the assessment of the EU Missions.
The new Mission would complement and advance the work of the existing Missions. For example, the Missions on Adaptation to Climate Change and on Climate-neutral and Smart Cities would see potential for further synergies across different funding instruments and private sector investment. It could also complement these two Missions by taking a holistic and more in-depth approach to the built environment. For instance, by exploring, through R&I, how neighbourhoods could become carbon sinks, integrate them in a circular ecosystem, make them more resilient to climate change, and allow them to give resources back to nature through regenerative design. The NEB also has a strong social innovation dimension, as it fosters the development of innovative governance and policymaking approaches to increase the flexibility, speed and circularity of decision-making flows when compared to classical processes. In its scope, the New European Bauhaus Mission would ensure complementarities synergies with relevant initiatives such as the Built4People Partnership. The NEB Mission would engage with people to build greater social acceptance for Green Deal policies, promoting social ownership of green solutions and encouraging behavioural changes needed to meet Green Deal targets. This would be done by focusing on sustainability alongside other criteria, including accessibility, affordability and quality of experience provided.
The New European Bauhaus has already developed synergies between R&I investments, other funding instruments30 and private sector investment. All 27 Member States have committed to the New European Bauhaus in over 220 cohesion policy programmes. It now has considerable potential for further scaling up and deploying innovative solutions at local and regional level. The European Investment Bank is also engaged with the aim of developing New European Bauhaus investment guidelines to help start-ups and project promoters. In 2023, two European Innovation Council challenges are contributing to the delivery of the NEB. Since 2021, the European Institute for Innovation and Technology is mobilising five Knowledge and Innovation Communities and their respective networks across business, education, and research through the initiative EIT Community New European Bauhaus. An EU Mission is an appropriate tool to reinforce such synergies, build scale and ensure maximum impact.
The Commission will:
- Propose a new EU Mission dedicated to the New European Bauhaus.
- Start the preparations for its scale up, including the establishment of a Mission Board and the drafting of a Mission Implementation Plan.
2. Reaffirming political and financial support
Given their ambition, EU Missions require a sustained and continuously coordinated effort across a period of more than a decade. While still at an early stage of implementation, EU Missions have received significant attention and support from EU Institutions, Member States, regional and local authorities, and a broad range of stakeholders. This momentum needs to be further supported to ensure the EU Missions reach their goals in the long-term.
For EU Missions to fully deliver on their promise, they need a clear commitment regarding continued financial support in Horizon Europe during the current EU long term budget. Accordingly, the Commission considers that Horizon Europe support for the EU Missions for after 2023 should be set at a level of 11% of Pillar 231. This funding will guarantee continuity and help to keep the pace of implementation in the existing Missions. At the same time, it will incentivise them to leverage funding sources beyond Horizon Europe, while also accommodating for the launch of a new Mission.
The Commission will:
- Reaffirm its political commitment and support to the EU Missions.
- Maintain EU Missions as flagships of implementation of Horizon Europe and other Union instruments.
- Propose a Horizon Europe budget for EU Missions of 11% of Pillar 2 until 2027.
5. Conclusion
Experience with two years of implementation of five EU Missions has confirmed that the mission-based approach as an instrument of Horizon Europe incentivises the engagement of broad and enthusiastic communities of stakeholders. Through its ability to promote experimentation, coordination and scaling of deployment, the EU Mission instrument can play a pivotal role in necessary societal transitions across multiple domains.
Based on the assessment and analysis of the EU Missions detailed in the Staff Working Document, this Communication concludes that implementation of the current five Missions should be continued, and support should be increased, both politically and financially. A new Mission on the NEB will complement and strengthen the current Missions, opening new possibilities to bring tangible R&I benefits for Europe.
Nevertheless, experience has also shown that to fully deliver on its potential, the Mission instrument needs to address a few remaining challenges, notably regarding public awareness, governance and its ability to leverage other sources of funding, including private funding. The actions formulated in this Communication aim to address the challenges still faced by EU Missions, in co-creation with all EU Institutions, Member States and stakeholders from across the EU, to make this transformative tool a true success.
1 See Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe, Recital 2.
2 COM(2021) 609 final.
3 Articles 8 (5) and 11 of the Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1290/2013 and (EU) No 1291/2013, OJ L 170, 12.5.2021.
4 COM(2021) 82 final.
5 COM/2021/44 final
6 https://health.ec.europa.eu/latest-updates/commission-expert-group-public-health-2022-12-08_en
7 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/09/council-updates-its-recommendation-to-screen-for-cancer/
8 Such as the Nature Restoration Law proposal, the Outermost Regions Strategy, the Arctic strategy, the Algae Strategy, the EU Action Plan to protect and restore marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries.
9 These are: the Atlantic and Arctic basin lighthouse; the Baltic and North Sea basin lighthouse; the Mediterranean Sea basin lighthouse and the Danube River basin lighthouse.
10 Mission Ocean and Waters Charter is a simple, inclusive and inspirational framework, calling for concrete actions to enhance cooperation to deliver on Mission objectives. It is open to any public or private interested parties. Mission actions cover R&I, knowledge and data, citizen engagement, upscaling/deployment of solutions, education and training.
11 Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Declaration, June 2022.
12 European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund
13 100 cities from Member States and 12 cities from countries associated to Horizon 2020.
14 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101056927
15 https://netzerocities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Pilot-Cities-Announcement-Press-Release-Mar-2023-Final.pdf
16 https://www.urban-initiative.eu/innovative-actions-greening-cities
17 https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-research-and-innovation-news/local-action-global-impact-urban-transitions-mission-centre-starts-its-activities-2022-12-13_en
18 https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esdacviewer/euso-dashboard/
19 European Parliament resolution of 28 April 2021 on soil protection (2021/2548(RSP).
20 Farm to Fork Strategy; Biodiversity Strategy for 2030; Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change; Forest Strategy for 2030; Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soil; Action plan for the development of organic production in the EU; A long-term Vision for the EU's Rural Areas; EU Soil Strategy for 2030; Communication on sustainable carbon cycles; Communication “Safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems”; Communication “Ensuring availability and affordability of fertilisers”; Legislative Framework for a Union Sustainable Food System (FSFS); Communication on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment”.
21 https://www.cbe.europa.eu/
22 https://prima-med.org/
23 https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/cap-my-country/cap-strategic-plans_en
24 https://mission-soil-platform.ec.europa.eu/
25 By mid-June 2023 the Manifesto had over 1400 signatories, including 100 public and private institutions.
26 https://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/en/
27 https://www.aimforclimate.org/
28 https://new-european-bauhaus.europa.eu/index_en
29 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2022-0213_EN.html
30 Horizon Europe, European Regional Development Fund, Just Transition Fund, LIFE, Digital Europe, Single Market Programme, COSME, Erasmus+, Creative Europe, European Solidarity Corps.
31 The distribution of the contribution among the different clusters of Pillar 2 will be differentiated across clusters, reflecting the objectives of the Missions and their link to the given cluster. It will not undermine support for the uptake and scaling up of the development and manufacturing of strategic technologies in the Union, as established in the EU’s industrial policy and the Commission’s proposal for a review of the Multiannual Financial Framework.
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