European Commission opens Call for Evidence on future Joint Undertakings under FP10
The European Commission has published a Call for Evidence on “Horizon Europe – European Partnerships to be implemented as Joint Undertakings”. Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the future implementation of European Partnerships as Joint Undertakings under the next phase of Horizon Europe, FP10.
The call for evidence is open for feedback until 14 July 2026 via the Commission’s portal.
What is the purpose of this initiative?
As part of FP10, the European Commission plans to establish a new Single Basic Act (SBA) that will provide a common legal framework for all future Joint Undertakings created under Article 187 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The SBA itself will only set up future JUs, while the Article 185 TFEU initiatives will be set up via a separate legal act (one or several). However, given their Treaty-based nature, Article 185 TFEU initiatives will be included in the impact assessment of the SBA.
The objective is to create a more coherent and streamlined framework by:
- ensuring legal certainty across all Joint Undertakings;
- aligning objectives and governance structures;
- harmonising rules and procedures where possible;
- reducing fragmentation between policy areas;
- fostering synergies across sectors; and
- maintaining sufficient flexibility to address sector-specific needs.
To help prepare the SBA for JUs, the Commission will carry out a number of consultation activities, which will include the following.
- This call for evidence, which will be published for four weeks on the Have your say portal.
- A public consultation, which, together with this call for evidence, will give stakeholders an opportunity to
share their views and submit relevant evidence. The public consultation will last 12 weeks and will be also
available on the Have your say portal in all EU official languages. Replies may also be provided in any of
the 24 official EU languages. - Ad hoc consultations that may be carried out as part of the impact assessment process, in particular
meetings of the Partnerships Knowledge Hub. - Additional targeted consultations that might address: (i) Member States; (ii) representatives of industry; (iii)
representatives of existing Treaty-based partnerships; and (iv) representatives from research-performing
organisations. The targeted consultations will be used to collect views on and evidence of the expected
impact of possible measures.
The call for evidence is an important step in the preparation of the future partnership landscape. It gives stakeholders the opportunity to share views, evidence and practical experience on how Joint Undertakings should be designed and implemented in the coming programming period. Contributions may address, among other aspects, strategic priorities, governance, openness and inclusiveness, simplification, monitoring, synergies with other EU and national initiatives, and the overall added value of this partnership model.
ERA-LEARN encourages interested stakeholders to review the call for evidence and submit their feedback through the European Commission’s portal.