The European Commission wants to free up around 43 billion euros in public investment for increasing semiconductor production in the EU.
This would take precautions "to avoid future shocks for our economy, as we see them with the current supply bottlenecks in chips," said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton on Tuesday in Brussels.
The Commission is thus responding to the ongoing scarcity of microchips in industry.
With the so-called "Chips Act", the EU wants to become more independent of Asia in the field of semiconductors.
Semiconductors are currently largely manufactured in Taiwan, China and South Korea.
The authority of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen aims to more than double the EU's global market share in the production of semiconductors to 20 percent by 2030.
In a market expected to double in size by 2030, that means a fourfold increase in semiconductor production.
For this purpose, the EU Commission provides eleven billion euros in subsidies for research on chips.
These should come from the EU and the Member States.
Another more than 30 billion euros are to come through the approval of state aid for companies in the sector.
This is intended to promote the settlement of foreign companies.
The American chip manufacturer Intel had announced that it wanted to invest in Europe.
The European Commission hopes that this public money will lead to even more private investment.
During the pandemic, there were shortages of semiconductors around the world, with companies in the automotive industry in particular having to cut back or shut down production altogether.
Because of their importance for the production of many goods in the technology sector such as cars or smartphones, semiconductors are increasingly regarded as a key technology.
The EU has been affected by bottlenecks for almost three years.