This week (15 February), the plenary session in Strasbourg expressed its vote on two bills: the Chips Act and the Chips Joint Undertaking for Europe, endorsing the text already adopted by the Industry Committee which focuses on next-generation semiconductors and quantum chips and on creating a network of centers to address the skills shortage and attract new talent on research, design and production.
Semiconductor chips are the essential building blocks of digital and digitized products. From smartphones and cars, through critical applications and infrastructures for healthcare, energy, communications and industrial automation, chips are central to the modern digital economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a weakness in the ecosystem within both Europe and other regions in the world experiencing significant shortages of chips. EU industries manufacture many types of high-tech products, of which chips are essential parts.
As Ursula von der Leyen once said, “there is no digital without those chips”. That’s why the European Commission took this initiative in order to reinforce the EU's semiconductor technology and innovation capabilities and ensure Europe's chips technology leadership in the mid- to long-term. The Act will ensure the deployment across Europe of advanced semiconductor design tools, pilot lines for prototyping the next generation of chips and testing facilities for innovative applications of latest chips technology. It will also build advanced technology and engineering capabilities in quantum chips.
The European Chips Act package - Financial Architecture
The Chips Act should result in additional public and private investments of more than 15 billion euros. These investments will complement:
- existing programmes and actions in research & innovation in semiconductors (Horizon Europe, Digital Europe programme)
- announced support by Member States.
In total, more than 43 billion euros of policy-driven investment will support the Chips Act until 2030, which will be broadly matched by long-term private investment. The act will focus on three key pillars: the Chips for Europe Initiative, a new framework to ensure security of supply and resilience and a coordination mechanism to monitor the semiconductor supply chain.
