In the context of proposed Horizon Europe Partnerships, the EU Commission and EU Member States are raising increased expectations on financial and/or in-kind contributions by the private side. As contributions by beneficiaries, which are not private Partners, are not counted and all the expectations should be demonstrated by the private Partners only, this would allow for significant “free-riding”. These modified conditions would make Horizon Europe Partnerships less attractive compared to Horizon 2020 Partnerships. The incentives for stakeholders to become members in Associations coordinating Horizon Europe Partnerships would be considerably reduced. If the number of Association members cannot remain sufficiently high to support the envisaged threshold, any Association would eventually run into difficulties with the risk of collapsing. However, the Associations for the representation of the private side are an essential part of European Partnership to develop and coordinate coherent long-term research roadmaps. In order to keep the conditions for Partnerships attractive for all stakeholders, Bitkom issued a set of recommendations.