The European Parliament and the member countries of the European Union reached an agreement on Tuesday on a development plan for the semiconductor industry to reduce its dependence on Asia in this strategic sector.
“Europe is taking its destiny into its own hands”, greeted the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, welcoming this text known as the “Chip Law”.
43 billion euros of investments
The declared objective is to reach 20% of the world market in 2030, that is, twice as much as today, through the mobilization of 43,000 million euros of public and private investment in favor of this industry. The European Union, at the forefront of chip research, has seen its market share fall in recent decades.
The shortage of semiconductors, which has slowed down the automobile industry, has caused an electric shock. Geopolitical tensions around China, as well as the pandemic, have raised awareness of the need to produce these essential components in Europe, mainly imported from Taiwan and Korea. To the point of convincing the Commission to relax its strict state aid framework and to adopt an interventionist industrial policy in a continent traditionally very open to global competition.
Semiconductors are essential in many everyday objects, such as mobile phones, but also in data storage centers, at the heart of the booming digital economy.
Source: BFM TV
