The European Parliament adopted its position on the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) on 17 October.
As reported by UKRO in a previous article, the goal of this new initiative is to support the EU’s long-term competitiveness in critical technologies, in the fields of digital and deep tech, clean tech and biotech.
STEP seeks to reinforce, leverage and steer existing and new EU funds and programmes, such as the InvestEU, Innovation Fund, Horizon Europe (the European Innovation Council – EIC), European Defence Fund, EU4Health and Digital Europe, with the goal to investing up to €160 billion in these critical areas. This approach will be complemented by cohesion policy incentives and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
To boost the investment capacity dedicated specifically to promoting STEP objectives, the Commission proposed to allocate an additional €10 billion to several EU programmes, including €0.5 billion to the EIC under Horizon Europe, which will be complemented with more than €2 billion of redeployments (funds diverted from other parts of the programme) and use of decommitted amounts (unused funds from past EIC calls and projects).
In their position on STEP, Members of the European Parliament advocate for an extra €3 billion on top of the Commission’s proposed €10 billion, bringing the total STEP budget up to €13 billion in new funds.
Under the STEP, a Sovereignty Seal and a Sovereignty Portal will be created to promote synergies among the existing EU programmes. The Sovereignty Seal – an EU quality label for high-quality projects that could not be funded due to budgetary constraints – will be awarded to projects contributing to the STEP objectives, provided that the project has been assessed and complies with the minimum quality requirements of a call for proposals under Horizon Europe or other relevant EU programmes and funds. Suitable projects with the Sovereignty Seal will get privileged and simplified access to other sources of funding under the STEP.
In addition, a Sovereignty Portal will serve as a one-stop shop to help project promoters and companies seeking funds find relevant information about funding opportunities under EU budget programmes for STEP investments.
Next steps
The European Parliament sees STEP as a testbed for a fully-fledged Sovereignty Fund in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (long-term EU budget after 2027). Consequently, Members of the European Parliament are asking the Commission to conduct an interim evaluation by 2025, including a proposal to amend STEP or a new proposal for a fully-fledged European Sovereignty Fund.
The MEPs also insist that the STEP, along with long-term EU budget revision, should be agreed as soon as possible, as the package should be integrated into next year’s annual budget to be negotiated by the end of this year.
Negotiations with the Member States will start as soon as the Council of Ministers agrees on a common position.