The European Commission presented, this Wednesday, June 20, its draft revision of the European budget for the period 2021-2027. Beyond an increase in aid to Ukraine or measures to deal with the rise in interest rates, the European executive unveiled a new program called Step for “Strategic technologies for europe platform” or “platform European Union for strategic technologies”.
This proposal for a European regulation aims to ensure the long-term sovereignty and competitiveness of the European Union in terms of critical technologies, in the fields of digital and deep tech, clean technologies and biotechnologies. In its press release, Brussels cites in particular high performance computing (HPC), quantum computing, the cloud, edge computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, 5G or virtual reality.
Remarketing of existing programs
This Step project plans to mobilize an “investment capacity” of up to 160 billion euros. A very large part of the funds will come from existing schemes such as InvestEU, the Innovation Fund, Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe program or the European Defense Fund. Brussels nevertheless plans to allocate an extension of ten billion euros to strengthen certain targeted programs.
By redirecting “existing funding towards technological areas that are crucial for Europe’s leadership”, the European Commission intends to gain in agility and speed rather than starting with a new financial instrument, the creation of which would take at least 12 to 18 months. The draft regulation will nevertheless have to pass the traditional legislative circuit and be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force.
In addition, Brussels proposes to gain visibility by centralizing all information on funding opportunities in a future “Sovereignty Portal” dedicated to project leaders. From startups to large accounts, all companies are potentially eligible. Another advantage of Step: the possibility of combining several European grants for the same project.
For the Context site, this Step program and its additional ten billion euros is only a makeshift of the “sovereignty fund” promised by the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen last September and since sacrificed on the altar of budgetary prudence.
Capitalizing on the success of the EU Chips Act in the field of semiconductors, this device was to redefine European industrial policy towards a greener and digital economy in response to the American Inflation Reduction Act, endowed with 369 billion euros .