Australia signs €93.5B EU research pact, minister blasts Nationals on trade

Australia will sign on to Horizon Europe, the EU's giant research funding scheme, with Industry Minister Tim Ayres locking in the agreement in Brussels on Thursday alongside European Commission counterpart Ekaterina Zaharieva. The program pools €93.5 billion ($152 billion) for science, industry and innovation, shared among EU member states and outside contributors. Australia's entry ticket is $40 million.

Ayres spent the days before the signing in the UK touring advanced manufacturing sites, then Stuttgart to talk over a University of New South Wales tie-up with the University of Stuttgart on new materials for solar power generation, announced Wednesday. UNSW vice chancellor Attila Brungs said the Horizon Europe partnerships would deliver an “enormous” benefit, noting Australia generates roughly 3 per cent of the world's new knowledge from just 0.3 per cent of its population. “We must connect with the other 97 per cent,” he said. The real money for Australia is expected in the next phase — €53.5 billion over seven years — with critical minerals, computing, energy, climate, health and space flagged as priorities.

The pledge lands in the middle of a Senate standoff over the EU free trade agreement unveiled in March. Nationals leader Matt Canavan has blasted the deal over provisions binding Australia to the Paris Agreement and a net-zero emissions target, and while he told reporters on Sunday he would be “constructive” with Trade Minister Don Farrell, he held firm against net-zero by 2050. The Liberals and Greens still haven't declared where they stand; Pauline Hanson's One Nation backs the deal.

Ayres didn't hold back. “You would have to have rocks in your head to oppose the EU FTA in this period, when we're in the middle of a heightened strategic contest and trade volatility,” he said, calling the climate objections “a nonsense argument” and noting every Australian agreement of the past 15 years carries similar language. He argued the broader package — trade plus a defence industry partnership also agreed in March — anchors Australia to a 400-million-person economy, and said the Coalition should “get serious and get adult.”

Canavan isn't without critics inside the Coalition: former cabinet minister Alex Hawke called the Nationals' stance “nutty” during a party room meeting last month. Australian food exporters have also grumbled the trade deal opens European markets too little, despite extra access for beef and lamb. Horizon Europe launched in 2021 and already counts Canada, New Zealand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom among its non-EU participants.