Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform: Council agrees its partial negotiating mandate

Member states’ EU ambassadors today agreed on the Council’s partial negotiating mandate on the proposed Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP).

The platform will support investments in critical technologies in the fields of digital and deep tech, clean tech and biotech in the EU. It will reduce the EU’s strategic dependencies and enhance its long-term competitiveness.

The Council’s negotiating mandate is partial, because its position on additional financial support for STEP will depend on the final outcome of the horizontal negotiations on the mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027.

Main elements of the Council’s mandate

In its mandate, the Council clarifies the objectives and scope of STEP, and confirms its support for the proposed sovereignty seal and sovereignty portal for STEP-related investments.

To facilitate the use of available funding and create synergies among funding instruments for investments in critical technologies, the Council supports identifying resources which would support STEP objectives within a range of existing EU programmes and funds, including the InvestEU, Horizon Europe, European Defence Fund, Innovation Fund, Recovery and Resilience Facility and cohesion policy funds.

The Council also agrees to the Commission proposal to apply a 100 % co-financing rate and a 30 % pre-financing for STEP priorities under the 2021–2027 programming period for cohesion policy funds, as well as to the proposal to enable investments in large enterprises.

Considering the continued budgetary pressure in member states, the Council has also agreed to apply retroactively a 100 % co-financing rate to the 2014-2020 cohesion programmes in the final accounting year, whilst extending the deadline for submitting payment applications by 12 months.

In addition, the Council has included in its mandate some other provisions to reduce administrative burden for the member states and facilitate the reprogramming of funds towards STEP objectives.

Next steps

The partial mandate agreed today will serve as a basis for negotiations on STEP with the European Parliament. Once an agreement with the Parliament is reached, the regulation will need to be formally adopted by the Council and the European Parliament.

Background

The Commission proposed the creation of a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform on 20 June 2023 as part of its package of proposals related to the mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027.

Today the Council also agreed a partial negotiating mandate on the Ukraine Facility.