On 31 May 2024, the European Commission approved a surgical amendment to the Guidelines on Regional Aid (Guidelines) to reflect the objectives of the “Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform” (STEP).
The “Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform”, created by Regulation (EU) 2024/795, aims to support critical and emerging strategic technologies and their value chains in the relevant sectors in the European Union (EU). The objective is to promote the development and production of technologies in the following sectors: (i) digital technologies; (ii) clean and resource-efficient technologies, including net-zero technologies within the meaning of the Net-Zero Industry Act; (iii) biotechnologies, including medicines on the EU list of critical medicines and their components; and (iv) addressing labor and key skills shortages in these sectors.
The amendment approved by the European Commission allows EU Member States to increase the maximum level of public funding, expressed as a percentage of the eligible costs, for investments falling under the scope of STEP in the so-called ‘A’ and ‘C’ regions of the Treaty. Pursuant to this amendment, the intensity of public funding can be increased by 10% for projects in “A” regions and by 5% for projects in “C” regions, through the revision and update of the relevant regional aid maps by Member States.
Should Portugal choose to make use of the new rules, the national regional aid map for the 2022-2027 period, as reflected in Decisions SA.100752, SA.106697 and SA.109212, may be subject to the following STEP increases, as summarized in the table below, subject to prior notification and subsequent approval by the European Commission.
