Source: European Parliament
1. The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP)[1] is a Commission initiative to boost investment in manufacturing of critical technologies, digital and deep-tech innovation, clean and resource-efficient technologies, and biotechnologies. Spain can amend its Cohesion Policy funding towards these priorities under the STEP Regulation. Furthermore, Spain is currently setting up a Member State compartment under InvestEU[2] using their Recovery and Resilience Facility[3] funds and the national budget to mobilise additional private and public investments in Spain under the sustainable infrastructure, research, innovation and digitisation and the small and medium-sized enterprises policy windows.
2. The Net-Zero Industry Act[4] and the Critical Raw Materials Act[5] strengthen the EU’s manufacturing capacity for net-zero technologies while ensuring access to critical raw materials. The Commission has engaged with Spain to ensure their early implementation.
The new Competitiveness Compass[6] places competitiveness as a core principle for EU action. The Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal is a key deliverable in this regard[7]. The Commission counts on Spain to contribute to the simplification effort. The Commission will also present a Quality Jobs Roadmap to improve working conditions and labour market participation.
3. The Commission considers it important for Spain to design and implement a national exploration programme[8] to improve critical raw material potential. The Commission has published the first list of strategic projects on 25 March 2025[9]. Five of them are located in Spain and one concerns lithium. To support these projects, including early-stage exploration, Spain could develop financing instruments such as a national critical raw materials fund.
- [1] Regulation (EU) 2024/795 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 February 2024 establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/795/oj/eng
- [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM:4516649
- [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02021R0241-20240301
- [4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202401735
- [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02024R1252-20240503
- [6] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52025DC0030
- [7] COM(2025) 85 final.
- [8] Art. 19 2024/1252 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj/eng
- [9] Strategic projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials/strategic-projects-under-crma_en