The European Chips Act is unveiled

The European Commission has proposed a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the EU’s security of supply, resilience and technological leadership in semiconductor technologies and applications. The European Chips Act will bolster Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and help achieve both the digital and green transition.

Recent global semiconductors shortages forced factory closures in a wide range of sectors from cars to healthcare devices. In the car sector, for example, production in some Member States decreased by one third in 2021. This made more evident the extreme global dependency of the semiconductor value chain on a very limited number of actors in a complex geopolitical context. But it also illustrated the importance of semiconductors for the entire European industry and society.

The EU Chips Act will build on Europe’s strengths, world-leading research and technology organisations and networks as well as host of pioneering equipment manufacturers – and address outstanding weaknesses. It will bring about a thriving semiconductor sector from research to production and a resilient supply chain.

It will mobilise more than €43 billion euros of public and private investments and set measures to prevent, prepare, anticipate and swiftly respond to any future supply chains disruption, together with Member States and our international partners. It will enable the EU to reach its ambition to double its current market share to 20% in 2030.

The European Chips Act will also ensure that the EU has the necessary tools, skills and technological capabilities to become a leader in this field beyond research and technology in design, manufacturing and packaging of advanced chips, to secure its supply of semiconductors and to reduce its dependencies.

In response to this announcement, Eamonn Sinnott, General Manager of Intel Ireland told Irish Tech News;

“Intel welcomes the EU proposal for a Chips Act and the ambition to develop a more geographically diversified, sustainable and resilient semiconductor supply chain. The proposal is a catalyst for future EU-wide critical R&D and manufacturing investments from Intel and others in the semiconductor industry. 

Intel has been manufacturing chips in the EU for more than 30 years. Since 1989, we have invested €18 billion in European production and we employ over 10,000 employees across 20 European countries. We are currently considering a significant increase in our European footprint, and we expect that the EU Chips Act will facilitate these plans. 

It is imperative that the EU and U.S. join forces to invest in the semiconductor ecosystem for the sake of our collective economic stability and supply chain security. The EU-US Trade and Technology Council provides the ideal forum to ensure regulatory alignment on semiconductors and minimise the risk of new trade barriers for our sector”.

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