STEP in figures | European Union

Current budget allocation

Figures are updated until 31 January 2026

EUR 27.4 billion in funding

across the 11 EU programmes covered by STEP

EUR 13.5 billion steered by the EU Commission

under five direct management programmes

EUR 13.9 billion reprogrammed

by Member States and regions under Cohesion Policy Funds

Funding in direct management: per sector

Under STEP, 5 funding programmes are directly managed by the Commission. Find here the breakdown of how much funding was made available for STEP under those programmes (since 2023).

Digital Europe Programme: 3%
EU4Health: 3%
European Defence Fund: 6%
Horizon Europe: 12%
Innovation Fund: 76%

Funding in shared management: per Member State

EU Member States can reassign cohesion policy funding to support actions that are aligned with the STEP initiative.

So far, Member States have reprogrammed:

€10.5 bn under European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
€1.1 bn under Just Transition Fund (JTF+)
€2.1 bn under European Social Fund (ESF+)
€0 bn under the Cohesion Fund (CF)

Number of STEP Seals per country and per sector

The STEP Seal is a quality label awarded to excellent projects that perform above evaluation thresholds under STEP calls. Explore STEP Seal projects across the EU and across STEP sectors:

	Cleantech	Digitaltech	Biotech	Total
Belgium	35	59	52	146
Bulgaria	6	28	1	35
Czechia	4	21	11	36
Denmark	28	24	23	75
Germany	65	94	66	225
Estonia	5	24	14	43
Ireland	10	21	23	54
Greece	25	47	20	92
Spain	78	96	64	238
France	72	79	42	193
Croatia	5	13	8	26
Italy	46	74	48	168
Cyprus	1	17	4	22
Latvia	6	16	4	26
Lithuania	2	14	2	18
Luxembourg	4	11	5	20
Hungary	5	14	9	28
Malta	0	5	2	7
Netherlands	35	46	54	135
Austria	13	40	16	69
Poland	12	37	12	61
Portugal	18	34	38	90
Romania	3	20	7	30
Slovenia	4	18	9	31
Slovakia	2	5	1	8
Finland	20	42	19	81
Sweden	33	33	25	91

_{Disclaimer: A country is considered to have received a STEP Seal if at least one project with an awarded Seal is partially or fully located within its borders, even in the case of multi-location projects.}

STEP Annual Report

Check the STEP Annual report for insights into STEP's achievements in 2024. The next report will be published in Q2 2025 – stay tuned and register to our Newsletter.

This page was last updated on 6 February 2026