Uniarts Helsinki endorses the appeal to exclude Israel from the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme
On 24 September 2025, Uniarts Helsinki submitted its endorsement for the joint appeal of various European universities to exclude Israel from the Horizon Europe framework programme. The appeal also calls more broadly for the immediate suspension of the so-called Association Agreement between Israel and the European Union.
The universities demand that the European Commission create a transparent, structural and independent evaluation framework, particularly for the Horizon Europe programme. The programme is the EU’s largest-ever investment in European research and innovation. It will fund research and product development with €95 billion in 2021–2027.
“Uniarts Helsinki endorses the appeal because we believe that research and cultural cooperation in the EU must be consistently based on respect for human rights and democracy and the rule of law. Values to which the EU itself is committed,” says Kaarlo Hildén, rector of Uniarts Helsinki.
“As universities, like other institutions exercising public power, we need common policies and principles for what responsible internationality means in practice. Leaving decision-making to individual higher education institutions, faculties or professors is problematic in terms of both impact and the legal basis for decisions,” Hildén continues.
The universities that endorse the appeal emphasise that the EU’s values will lose their meaning if there are no consequences for violating them.
The statement was originally made by Belgian universities. So far, it is endorsed by several universities in Turkey, Spain and Slovenia, for example. As for Finnish universities, the University of Helsinki has also endorsed the appeal.