Sinn Féin spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, Research, Science and Innovation, Mairéad Farrell TD, has welcomed the Education Committee’s acceptance of her call to scrutinise the EU Commission’s latest proposal for dual use civil and military research.

In January, the Von der Leyen Commission published its proposal which, if enacted, would blur the lines between EU civil and military research, leading to significant concern.

It proposes to allow technologies with both civil and defence applications to be funded through the Framework Programme 10 (FP10) – which is linked to Horizon Europe – in order to boost the EU’s strategic autonomy.

Teachta Farrell said:

“I want to commend the Education Committee for agreeing to my proposal to scrutinise what is a very significant proposal that has come from the Commission and which, if passed, would have major consequences not merely for how research is funded at the EU level and the type of research undertaken, but risks a further drive toward EU militarisation.

“As such, I believe this proposal needs proper scrutiny, not merely at the national level, but at the European state level.

“Unfortunately, proposals that come from the EU often take a back seat to national considerations when addressed at the Oireachtas Committee level. If it is similar in other EU jurisdictions, then we could sleepwalk into a situation where research funding, and the areas prioritised for research, are radically transformed, and not for the better.

“Only a few years ago the EU Commission identified the green transition as a priority for research funding, but we are seeing a shift away from that toward more military considerations.

“Horizon Europe is the main source for European third level funding and Israel is a major beneficiary of it. Given that the ICJ has said it is committing a plausible genocide, then moves towards dual use should cause alarm.

“There is a desire to have a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence’s military applications. We know that Israel is one of the most advanced in terms of this. Its Lavender system is currently being used to generate lists of tens of thousands of human targets for potential airstrikes in Gaza.

“Many people are rightly concerned about this and fear we could be opening a dystopian can of worms which will pose real risks for humanity. I look forward to the Committee dealing with this, and I hope the public will take interest in what could be a very real and dangerous development.”