European clean technology platform, discussion begins. Leaders’ green light needed on figures

Brussels – Not an actual negotiation, but a first informal meeting between European institutions to move closer to an agreement on funding plans for the clean technologies that in the European Commission’s idea should pave the way in the coming years for the Sovereignty Fund for green industry.

The first of a series of informal inter-institutional meetings between the council, parliament and commission on the new platform for strategic technologies for Europe (called by its acronym “STEP”)—proposed by the EU executive last June as part of the mid-term review of the long-term budget—will be held late today (Jan. 15) in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament plenary is underway.

Wednesday the ambassadors of the 27 EU member states meeting at Coreper (Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU) have reached an agreement in principle on the Council’s negotiating mandate on the platform. A partial mandate, because at the extraordinary EU budget summit on February 1, leaders will decide on the figures with which to finance the platform.

The future “STEP” platform was proposed by the Commission as a structural tool to finance part of the goals of the Industrial Plan for the Green Deal announced last February. The European executive has proposed to mobilize 10 billion euros for the platform until 2027, increasing the scope of the Union’s long-term budget to augment the ones of some existing programmes: InvestEu (3 billion), Horizon Europe (0.5), Innovation Fund (5 billion), and European Defense Fund (1.5), and it was proposed as part of a broader mid-term review of the EU’s multi-year budget (2021-2027).

The European Parliament in its negotiating mandate adopted in October pushed for an additional 3 billion to reach 13 billion by 2027. In the ongoing negotiations in the council, Michel has sharply scaled back the positions of the parliament and commission, channelling just 1.5 billion euros to the platform. On the figures that will complete the Council’s negotiating mandate, leaders will have to reach an agreement at the extraordinary summit in February. Until there is political agreement on long-term budget changes, the actual negotiations cannot begin.

Nothing is yet decided on the figures, but several member states are indeed reluctant to increase their financial contribution to the budget to finance the platform. Ahead of the start of tonight’s negotiating meetings, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden released a joint statement to reiterate that “the scope and changes made to existing programmes are extraordinary, limited to the period from 2024 to 2027, and do not undermine budgetary programmes and rules for the period after 2027.” The financial scope is not the only bone of contention between the European Parliament’s position and the future position of the member states, but the scope could also become one.