REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Investing in the competitiveness and technological leadership of the EU
Date: 2025-07-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Budget, European Commission
Subjects: EU investment, biotechnology, clean technology, competitiveness, digital technology, industrial development, investment promotion, professional qualifications, project funding, technological independence

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.7.2025  COM(2025) 421 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Investing in the competitiveness and technological leadership of the EU {SWD(2025) 194 final}  
 
 
INTERIM EVALUATION OF THE 
STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR 
EUROPE PLATFORM (STEP) 

Investing in the competitiveness and 
technological leadership of the EU 

Report from the Commission 
to the European Parliament and the Council 

 
 
 
 
This  report  provides  an  interim  evaluation  of  the  implementation  of  the  Strategic 
Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP)1 until March 2025. Set up in March 2024 as part of the 
mid-term review of the current multiannual financial framework (MFF), STEP is a key component of 
the EU’s response to the growing challenges to its technological leadership and industrial 
resilience. STEP is not a new funding programme adding to the already complex funding landscape2. 
It  is  an  innovative  coordination  platform,  steering  EU  investments  across  11  existing  EU 
funding programmes3 to support critical strategic technologies in three sectors  - digital and deep 
technologies, clean and resource-efficient technologies, and biotechnologies - targeting also shortages 
of  skilled  labour.  The  implementation  of  STEP  relies  on  pooling  investments  under  existing  funds, 
awarding a STEP (Sovereignty) Seal4 to high-quality projects and offering a STEP (Sovereignty) 
Portal5 to facilitate access to funding for project promoters. STEP supports a wide range of 
beneficiaries, including small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, research institutions and 
industrial  players,  to  help  them  develop  and  scale  up  strategic  technologies  with  high  innovation 
potential or with the ability to reduce the strategic dependencies of the EU. 

The European Commission is adopting this interim evaluation on the implementation of STEP 
as required under Article 8 of the STEP Regulation6. Although published at an early stage of STEP 
implementation - too early for a fully-fledged impact evaluation - this report serves to extract valuable 
initial lessons. These insights are intended to inform discussions on future spending programmes under 
the next  MFF, as  envisaged by the Regulation. In line  with the requirements  of the Better  Regulation 
framework, the interim evaluation assesses how STEP is delivering against its objectives, based on the 
available  evidence.  It  does  so  by  considering  the  five  evaluation  criteria  of  effectiveness,  efficiency, 
relevance,  coherence  and  European  added  value.  The  staff  working  document  that  accompanies  this 
report provides further evidence and background, building on a broad set of evidence sources, including 
a dedicated call for evidence, targeted outreach missions to Member States, and exchanges with national 
authorities, industry representatives, and research institutions. 

The  evaluation  found  that  significant  strides  have  been  made  in  steering  EU  funding 
resources to advance the EU’s strategic objectives. Member States have taken action to integrate 
STEP priorities into their cohesion policy programmes, with approximately EUR 6.3 billion already 
mobilised  for  STEP  objectives7.  In  parallel,  under  EU  funding  programmes  managed  by  the 
Commission, around EUR 9.5 billion has been mobilised through targeted calls, with over EUR 
5.1 billion already awarded to selected projects. Furthermore, 190 STEP Seals have been awarded to 
high-quality projects of strategic value for the EU8. Although it is too early for a full assessment 

1 See Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform - European Union (STEP). 

2 The STEP Regulation does not provide for any additional financial allocation for STEP, except for a targeted reinforcement of EUR 1.5 billion 
to the European Defence Fund for STEP-related actions. 

3 The Innovation Fund, the Digital Europe Programme, the European Defence Fund, Horizon Europe (HE), EU4Health, the European Regional 
Development  Fund,  the  European  Social  Fund  Plus,  the  Just  Transition  Fund,  the  Cohesion  Fund,  the  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  and 
InvestEU. 

4 See STEP (Sovereignty) Seal. 

5 See STEP (Sovereignty) Portal. 

6 The STEP Regulation (Article 8) requires that an interim evaluation be concluded by December 2025. 

7 As of 31 March 2025, the Commission had approved a total of 38 STEP-related cohesion policy programme amendments across 11 Member 
States. 

8 This includes 11 STEP Seals awarded under the European Innovation Council on 3 April 2025. 

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and some complexities have arisen in its implementation, early indications suggest that STEP is 
effectively  steering  existing  EU  funding  resources  towards  critical  sectors  essential  for 
Europe’s technological sovereignty. 

This report is structured as follows. Section 1 assesses the progress made so far in implementing 
STEP, focusing on concrete results achieved on the ground. Section 2 looks at what has worked well 
and what could be improved, and identifies the key lessons learned so far. Section 3 summarises and 
concludes, outlining the way ahead. 

1.  The successful implementation of STEP is well under way 

STEP has been integrated into the implementation of five EU programmes directly managed 
by the Commission: Horizon Europe, the Innovation Fund9, the European Defence Fund (EDF), 
the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), and EU4Health. By March 2025, a total of 60 STEP-relevant 
calls for proposals and two calls for tenders had been launched across these programmes, aligning 
with  STEP’s  objectives  –  totalling  EUR  9.5  billion  in  funding.  The  calls  under  the  Innovation  Fund, 
supporting clean and resource-efficient technologies, accounted for the largest share. Other notable 
contributions  included  the  European  Innovation  Council’s  dedicated  STEP  “Scaleup”  call,  providing 
equity-only investments to successful applicants. By the end of March 2025, about EUR 5.2 billion had 
already been allocated to selected projects across the three strategic sectors identified under STEP, 
with  the  majority  of  resources  having  been  mobilised  towards  clean  technologies.  Support  for  the 
development of skills amounted to EUR 53 million, awarded under DEP to support advanced digital 
skills in critical technologies.  

Implementation  of  STEP  through  EU  cohesion  policy  is  progressing  well  at  national  and 
regional level in the Member States. By the end of March 2025, Member States had demonstrated 
substantial  interest  in  using  cohesion  policy  resources  to  support  STEP  priorities.  A  total  of  38 
amendments to cohesion policy programmes had been submitted and approved by the Commission for 
the  reallocation  of  EUR  6.3  billion  to  STEP-dedicated  priorities.  These  amendments  concerned 
programmes from 11 Member States10, in particular under the European Regional Development Fund 
(ERDF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), and the Just Transition Fund (JTF). Investments in skills 
development – an essential part of the STEP objectives - accounted for about 15% of the allocation11. 
In addition, selected Member States12 launched EUR 2  billion worth of calls for proposals targeting 
STEP-relevant  investments,  with  EUR  148  million  already  allocated  to  actual  projects  and  more 
allocations to take place gradually in the next months and years.  

The  figures  reported  as  of  end-March  2025  regarding  allocations  and  funding  awarded  to  STEP 
investments  -  including  resources  allocated  or  awarded  to  investments  in  skills  development 
contributing to the achievement of the STEP objectives - should be understood as a snapshot in an 
ongoing  process.  More  skills-focused  initiatives  can  be  expected  to  follow  as  STEP  implementation 
continues. Building on these results, the identified financial resources allocated to STEP objectives are 
yet to materialise into the financing of actual projects in the targeted technology sectors. Where the 

9 The fund is financed through revenues generated by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). 

10 France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland. 

11 Data point accounting only for programmes with dedicated STEP priority axes or known amounts dedicated to STEP. 

12 Germany, Denmark, Italy, Latvia and Romania. 

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projects  were  already  selected  for  funding  under  STEP-relevant  calls  for  proposals,  their 
implementation is expected to take place over the course of the next years. This limits the 
current possibility to assess STEP’s success in supporting strategic technologies.  

As  of  March  2025,  no  Member  State  had  submitted  amendments  to  its  recovery  and 
resilience plans (RRP) to add specific STEP priorities, and no Member State had opted to transfer 
Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) resources to its InvestEU Member State compartment specifically 
for STEP-related investments1314.  This can be explained by timing constraints, with STEP introduced 
more than halfway through the RRF’s implementation schedule. 

To increase visibility and facilitate alternative and cumulative financing for projects, the 
Commission has awarded 190 STEP (Sovereignty) Seals to date.  The STEP Seal is meant to 
recognise projects of high quality and aligned with STEP objectives, whether they received funding or 
not (often because of insufficient overall funding available). The Seal does not in itself involve any 
guarantee that alternative or cumulative funding will be made available:  as of end-March  2025, 
STEP Seal projects had yet to receive funding from EU cohesion policy resources or under the RRF. 
However, the first Seals were only awarded in October 2024, meaning that uptake of these could still 
happen in the months to come. 

The STEP (Sovereignty) Portal, launched in April 2024, has acted as a single online hub for 
information on STEP-related funding and investment opportunities. As of end of March 2025, 
the portal listed over 70 calls for proposals, across multiple sources of funding (cohesion policy, EU 
programmes managed by the Commission etc.). The STEP Portal features a map with an overview of 
cohesion policy programme amendments adopted and a public database of projects awarded the STEP 
Seal,  increasing  transparency  and  providing  a  resource  for  public  and  private  investors,  including 
managing authorities of EU funds in the Member States. Technical preparations are ongoing to integrate 
an  AI-powered  simulator  and  a  chatbot  to  help  project  promoters  identify  suitable  EU  funding 
opportunities. 

Facing the challenge of implementing STEP in a consistent manner across 11 different EU programmes, 
a  range  of  coordination  mechanisms  have  been  created.  First,  a  network  of  STEP  national 
contact points (NCPs) was set up, with representatives appointed by all Member States15. 
The  network  met  five  times  between  2024  and  early  2025,  providing  a  forum  for  exchanging 
experiences,  sharing  good  practices,  and  clarifying  regulatory  and  operational  aspects  of  STEP 
implementation. Second, an interservice Commission network involving 14 Directorates-General16 

13 However, eight Member States (Bulgaria, Czechia, Finland, Greece, Malta, Romania, Spain and Portugal) have contributed to their InvestEU 
Member State compartments, five of them using RRF resources, for non-STEP specific objectives. 

14 Member States are allowed to allocate 6% of their RRF resources to the InvestEU Member State compartment for investments in STEP-
relevant technologies. This is in addition to the existing option of transferring up to 4% of RRF funds to InvestEU for broader purposes, enabling 
a combined transfer of up to 10%. Member States are also required to consider as a priority STEP Seal-awarded projects when revising their 
RRPs. Furthermore, the STEP Seal must be considered by both the Commission and Member States in consultations on investments by the 
European Investment Bank (the main InvestEU partner) and during policy checks on investments by other InvestEU implementing partners. 

15 As of 31 March 2025, only Ireland had yet to appoint an NCP. 

16 Representatives of DG Budget; DG Climate Action; DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology; DG Competition; DG Defence 
Industry  and  Space;  DG  Economic  and  Financial  Affairs;  DG  Employment,  Social  Affairs  and  Inclusion;  DG  Internal  Market,  Industry, 
Entrepreneurship and SMEs; the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority; the Legal Service; DG Regional and Urban Policy; DG 
Research and Innovation; DG Health and Food Safety; the Secretariat-General; and the Reform and Investment Task Force. 

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meets  regularly  to  align  on  funding  priorities,  share  operational  guidance  and  best  practices,  and 
oversee progress. 

In addition, the Commission issued several guidance documents, including a formal Guidance 
Note on the scope of STEP17, a dedicated brochure for NCPs and managing authorities, and an updated 
notice on the amendment of RRPs to incorporate STEP priorities. So far, the Commission has conducted 
technical  missions  to  nine  Member  States  (Germany,  France,  Estonia,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Romania, 
Slovenia, Portugal and Greece) to further support national implementation efforts. 

2.  STEP is well positioned to support strategic technologies in the EU, 

though implementation hurdles remain  

STEP  plays  a  tangible  role  in  directing  EU  funding  programmes  towards  strategic 
technologies – however, systemic challenges limit the full exploitation of its potential. STEP 
has acted as a catalyst to coordinate existing instruments and steer them towards critical technologies 
in the digital and deep, clean, and biotech spheres, reorienting substantial financial resources within a 
short timeframe. Nevertheless, the multiplicity and diversity of EU funding programmes under STEP 
and  designed  prior  to the establishment  of  STEP  — each  with  distinct  eligibility  criteria,  application 
procedures, timelines, and co-financing rates  — constrain both the speed and the quality of STEP’s 
implementation, ultimately limiting its overall impact. 

While the STEP Seal has improved projects’ visibility, its impact on funding uptake is yet to 
be  established.  This  is  driven  by  timing  issues18 and practical  obstacles.  The  current  regional 
distribution of the awarded STEP Seals across Member States shows a relative concentration in the 
more developed regions of the EU. The projects awarded a STEP Seal located in ‘less developed’ and 
‘transition’  regions  could,  in  principle,  benefit  from  a  comparatively  larger  share  of  cohesion  policy 
resources.  It  has  proven  difficult  to  combine  financial  resources  from  different  EU  instruments  in 
practice  as  they  operate  under  different  rules,  including  divergent  assessment methods  for  eligible 
costs. Moreover, the State aid treatment of STEP projects varies depending on the type of project — 
projects covered by the STEP Regulation benefit only from a limited preferential regime19, — a factor 
which some national authorities have noted may limit their willingness to provide funding. Finally, the 
very  nature  of  certain  STEP  Seal  projects,  involving  large  transnational  consortia,  complicates  their 
potential uptake as it would require simultaneous support from multiple managing authorities.  

The  STEP  Portal  has  successfully  offered  simplified  access  to  information  on  funding 
opportunities  as  a  single-entry  point.  However,  its  operations  depend  on  separate  application 
systems. Planned improvements, such as the development of an AI-powered simulator, are expected 
to further improve its effectiveness. Information on grants and procurement actions under programmes 
managed directly by the Commission is available on the Funding & Tenders Portal. However, to date, 

17  Commission  Communication  C/2024/3209,  Guidance  Note  concerning  certain  provisions  of  Regulation  (EU)  2024/795  establishing  the 
Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), 2024, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/3209/oj. 

18 The first STEP Seals were awarded only towards the end of the evaluation period. 

19 In June 2024, the Commission amended the Guidelines on regional State aid to raise the maximum aid intensities in assisted areas for 
projects falling within the scope of STEP – see EUR-Lex - 52024XC03516 - EN - EUR-Lex. 

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there is no single entry point that displays the funding opportunities financed by the EU budget and 
managed by implementing partners, the Member States and regional authorities. 

STEP improved EU spending on critical technologies compared to the initial MFF set-up, but 
structural differences between programmes still prevent a fully integrated approach to the 
benefit of project promoters. For instance, several Member States presented examples of projects 
that  had  been  awarded  the  STEP Seal  under  the  Innovation  Fund  but  are  potentially  ineligible  for 
support from the ERDF and the JTF because of regulatory provisions20 – in the legal bases of funds – 
ruling  out  their  use  to  finance  installations  covered  by  the  Emissions  Trading  System  (ETS)21.  Such 
discrepancies reduce the capacity of STEP to act as a seamless bridge across management modes and 
underline the complexity of aligning different funding instruments post hoc. 

Strategically, STEP delivers European added value by concentrating resources and policy 
attention  on  sectors  and  projects  of  paramount  importance  for  the  EU’s  future 
competitiveness  and  economic  security.  STEP  provides  an  EU-wide  framework  to  promote 
investments in critical technologies, although the regional concentration of STEP Seal projects in more 
developed areas reflects a potential challenge for inclusive impact.  

The relevance of STEP is confirmed by the evolving political agenda. Commission initiatives 
under the Clean Industrial Deal22 and the Competitiveness Compass23 reflect a broad consensus on the 
need  to  support  strategic  technologies  through  focused,  coordinated  investments  and  actions.  The 
proposed  extension  of  STEP’s  scope  to  cover  the  defence  sector24  confirms  its  potential  under  the 
current MFF. 

3.  STEP will continue to deliver and inform future decision-making 

on EU funding 

While  still  phasing  in,  STEP  is  on  track  to  deliver  on  its  objectives.  The  platform  has 
demonstrated the benefits of increased coordination of funding programmes around a targeted set of 
policy objectives. The STEP Portal is successfully positioned as a pilot initiative bringing STEP-relevant 
funding and investment opportunities into a single entry point for relevant stakeholders.  

Despite  these  achievements,  the  evaluation  underscores  that  STEP  operates  within  the  limits  of  a 
complex and rigid funding landscape, highlighting the need for continued coordination to facilitate the 
increasingly necessary strategic prioritisation in the future. 

Looking ahead, STEP’s implementation activities continue to advance at full speed. By March 
2025, more cohesion policy programme amendments related to STEP had been submitted from across 

20  Article  7  of  Regulation  (EU)  2021/1058  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  24 June  2021  on  the  European  Regional 
Development  Fund  and  on  the  Cohesion  Fund  and  Article  9  and  Article  11(2),  point  (h),  of  Regulation  (EU) 2021/1056  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 establishing the Just Transition Fund. 

21 On 1 April 2025, the Commission published a legislative proposal with targeted amendments to the regulatory framework for the cohesion 
policy funds, including allowing investments related to production, processing, transport, distribution, storage or combustion of fossil fuels, in 
operations that received a STEP Seal under the Innovation Fund and more support from the ERDF for decarbonisation projects awarded a STEP 
Seal (e.g. under the Innovation Fund) – available at Inforegio - A modernised Cohesion policy: The mid-term review. 

22 See COM(2025) 85 final. 

23 See COM(2025) 30 final. 

24 Proposal for a regulation incentivising defence-related investments in the EU budget to implement the ReArm Europe Plan, COM(2025) 188 
final. 

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the EU. Their adoption and implementation will be a key focus in this new phase. Member States and 
the Commission will continue to launch calls for proposals and award funding to STEP-relevant projects. 
The increasing number of STEP Seals awarded by the Commission, combined with increased financial 
resources earmarked for STEP purposes at national level, provide a pipeline of high-quality projects for 
investors. Achieving STEP’s ambitions by the end of the current MFF in 2027 will require sustained 
efforts and continuous commitment from both Member States and the Commission. To this 
end, the Commission will continue exploring ways to assist Member States in implementing STEP and 
to enhance complementarities among EU funding instruments. 

In  this  second  phase  of  implementation,  STEP  could  benefit  from  a  larger  scope  and 
increased  incentives.  In April 2025, the Commission proposed to introduce a fourth sector under 
STEP - defence - and to expand the financial incentives available under STEP for cohesion policy. These 
novelties were introduced in the proposal for a regulation incentivising defence-related investments in 
the EU budget25 and in the proposal for a regulation in the context of cohesion mid-term review26. The 
texts are now currently being negotiated between EU institutions.  

At  this  stage,  further  amendments  to  the  functioning  of  STEP  are  not  envisaged  –  also 
considering the implementation time that would be needed to see possible benefits under a temporary 
instrument expiring at the end of the current MFF (end-2027). Still, many of the lessons learned 
from STEP and its limitations in addressing existing challenges may inform the design of 
the future MFF, as was envisaged in the STEP Regulation, in particular regarding the design 
of the future EU funding for competitiveness and economic convergence. Some of the key 
objectives of STEP - such as strengthened coordination and integration across EU funding instruments 
and simplified access to funding for beneficiaries with simpler rules and a single entry point - could 
inspire the design of the next MFF instruments. 

25 See EUR-Lex - 52025PC0188 - EN - EUR-Lex. 

26 See Inforegio - A modernised Cohesion policy: The mid-term review. 

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