Unpublished documents have shown that three of the major EU research programs could be abandoned by ministers.
Britain could withdraw from Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom, denying the EU up to £15billion in funding.
If Britain has to activate Article 16 of Northern Ireland Protocol within the next few days, then the Government is currently working on domestic solutions.
In comparison with Norway and other non-member countries, Brussels has impeded entry to these programmes.
Unpublished documents have shown that three of the major EU research programmes could be abandoned by ministers.
Britain could withdraw from Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom, denying the EU up to £15 billion in funding
The leaked government document has revealed ministers think that the delay is a deliberate tactic by Brussels to create leverage in the talks over Northern Ireland, the Telegraph reported.
The paper said departments have been advised to prepare ‘alternatives to each programme in case association should not prove possible to a satisfactory timeline’.
The statement stated that the program benefits could not be replicated by domestic options and that withdrawing them would impact on our ambitions to be a superpower in science.
Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, has allegedly been working with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, to create a British alternative to the Horizon Europe called ‘Discovery Fund’.
Maros Sefcovic, vice president of the European Commission will be traveling to London this week to carry on talks.
On Friday he warned that triggering Article 16 ‘would have serious consequences’.
Downing Street consistently rejected EU claims that Britain was poised to invoke Article 16 in an instant and preferred to resolve their differences by negotiation.
If Britain has to activate Article 16 of Northern Ireland Protocol within the next few days, then the Government is currently working on domestic solutions
Brussels has prevented Norway, a non-member state from gaining entry to the programs.
The UK will however use this mechanism to find a solution if it is not possible.
Talks have been halted after three weeks of intensive negotiations. Both sides claim that the EU has not made sufficient concessions.
There are still issues to be discussed, including reducing the number of customs controls and red tape that surrounds medicines. Also, there is the possibility of allowing pets to travel between Northern Ireland’s borders and other parts of the UK.
A Government source said: ‘We’ve always said that we’ll use Article 16 if solutions can’t be found. But people need to understand that we’re taking these talks seriously and we mean it when we say that we want a negotiated outcome.’
The source said the EU’s proposals so far ‘don’t deliver what they say on the tin. The number of checks and processes would still be unacceptably high, contrary to what the Commission said when they first announced them’.