EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA IN ACTION: HORIZON 2020

The European community's response to a sweeping growth of value of intellectual resources in late the late XX - early XXI century was to initiate seven consecutive framework programs, aimed at support and intensification of European scientific co-operation during the period from 1983 till 2013. The new phase, which influenced higher education and the European scientific community, was the Lisbon Process, aimed at increase of Europe's competitiveness and creation of Europe of Knowledge. European scientific community's goal became the achievement of a unified research and area. In the article the author offers a detailed analysis of the most voluminous program for support of research and innovation in the history of the EU - "Horizon 2020" with a total budget of 80 billion euro aimed at the completion of European Research Area. The author considers three pillars, which the program is based on: excellent science, industrial leadership, and societal challenges. The article examines economic and political circumstances, which have led to the adoption of the Horizon 2020. The author concludes that the program reflects the interests of the scientific community: it consistently accentuates such problems as climate change and Europe's technological gap in relation to the U.S., both of which threaten dire consequences and can only be addressed by scientists. However, it prioritizes the interests of a small group of leading researchers connected to leading universities and transnational corporations, which become to be identified as the European scientific community.