The goal of the trialogues under way – there will surely be two more: on 21 February and 12 March – is to reach an informal political agreement between Parliament, Council and Commission on the text of the framework program (or parts of it) by May 2019. The compromise is likely, but (if so) it will be an informal and political agreement, subject to changes in political balance in the EU institutions (new Parliament, new Commission, some new governments). The rest is uncertain: to start negotiations on the specific program before the European elections, it is necessary that Member States produce a common position shortly: certainly they will not do so during the next Competitiveness Council (Research part) of 19 February (The Competitiveness Council, part Research, is the configuration of the EU Council which brings together the ministers of the Research of the 28). The most realistic scenario (to date) is the informal institutional agreement, before the elections, on a piece of the framework program (objectives, structure, rules of participation, evaluation criteria), with the Council – in the meantime – defining its own position on the rest and on the specific program, pending the resumption of negotiations on the new Parliament and the new Commission established (November 2019).
