FELIX MÜLLER
Evonik
Rellinghauser Strasse 1-11, D-45128, Essen, Germany

Europe is in danger: The Brexit, the asylum seekers who arrive steadily in the Mediterranean countries and the common tendency of the general political press of many countries to blame everything the European Commission does has led to a very negative image of the institution which is probably a key reason for the successful development of Europe in the last decades. Populism and nationalism around the countries are growing.
The benefits of the European Institution nearly nobody realizes. Travelling without borders and freedom to settle and work or study in the states of the community is a great achievement, and the common market is a base for a lot of business and keeps Europe at the scale of the big economies in the US and China.
With all this concern on Europe without realizing the benefits of Europe currently found in public opinion: Not a lot of people are aware that the European Union is the largest research funding organization on this planet, paving the way to the future. With the program HORIZON 2020 now nearly halfway through, it can be seen that the shift on Research and Innovation in the framework of the program has been successful, by the huge amou ...