A lot of people here seem to be missing how Horizon Europe actually works.
This isn’t the EU handing out free cash to Israel (or any other non-EU country). Horizon is an open research & innovation programme where countries can associate if they pay in. Israel, Norway, the UK, Iceland, Turkey, etc. all pay hundreds of millions to get access. The money is then distributed based on competitive grants and peer-reviewed by international experts. Whoever has the strongest proposals wins.
So yes, Israel shows up high on this chart because their universities and companies are very strong in fields like AI, quantum tech, cybersecurity, and medicine. But they’re not “taking” EU taxpayer money — they literally pay to participate in the programme. And the EU benefits too, as European researchers cooperate with Israeli partners, which makes projects more competitive and innovative.
Also, Horizon funds cannot be used for weapons research. By law, military projects are excluded. What’s funded are civilian science and innovation projects — though some research (like cybersecurity or robotics) can have dual-use applications later, which is also true for any EU country’s projects.
TLDR: stop with the hatred and the rage-bait. Open a new tab and fact-check by yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's not used for weapons. Israel even if it's paying it's being favoured by being in such projects, so people can legitimately be against it.
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u/Mhabi2502 Bavaria (Germany) 1d ago
A lot of people here seem to be missing how Horizon Europe actually works.
This isn’t the EU handing out free cash to Israel (or any other non-EU country). Horizon is an open research & innovation programme where countries can associate if they pay in. Israel, Norway, the UK, Iceland, Turkey, etc. all pay hundreds of millions to get access. The money is then distributed based on competitive grants and peer-reviewed by international experts. Whoever has the strongest proposals wins.
So yes, Israel shows up high on this chart because their universities and companies are very strong in fields like AI, quantum tech, cybersecurity, and medicine. But they’re not “taking” EU taxpayer money — they literally pay to participate in the programme. And the EU benefits too, as European researchers cooperate with Israeli partners, which makes projects more competitive and innovative.
Also, Horizon funds cannot be used for weapons research. By law, military projects are excluded. What’s funded are civilian science and innovation projects — though some research (like cybersecurity or robotics) can have dual-use applications later, which is also true for any EU country’s projects.
TLDR: stop with the hatred and the rage-bait. Open a new tab and fact-check by yourself.