Recital 11

(11) A Sovereignty Seal should be awarded to projects contributing to the STEP objectives, provided that the project has been assessed and complies with the minimum quality requirements, in particular eligibility, exclusion and award criteria, provided in calls for proposals under Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund, the EU4Health Programme or the Digital Europe Programme, regardless of whether the project has received funding under one of those instruments. Those minimum quality requirements are established with a view to identifying high-quality projects. The Sovereignty Seal should be awarded in line with the specific eligibility conditions defined in the calls for proposals under the programmes concerned, which may include geographical limitations, if appropriate and foreseen in the respective legislative acts governing those programmes. When preparing the scope of the calls for proposals that could be awarded a Sovereignty Seal, the Commission should include, where appropriate, the requirement for project proposals to indicate how they are expected to contribute to the strengthening and structuring of local networks of industrial actors and to job creation. Those calls should, where possible and appropriate, be continuously open. The Sovereignty Seal should be used as a quality label, to help projects attract public and private investments by certifying its contribution to the objectives of STEP. Moreover, the Sovereignty Seal should promote better access to Union funding, in particular by facilitating cumulative or combined funding from several Union instruments. Member States should also be encouraged to take into account the Sovereignty Seal when granting financial support through their own programmes.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-13 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.