The European Parliament and European Union member countries reached an agreement on Tuesday (April 18th) on a plan to develop the semiconductor industry with the aim of reducing its dependence on Asia in this strategic sector.
"Europe is taking its destiny into its own hands," said European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton, welcoming the text known as the "Chips Act". "By harnessing the most advanced semiconductors, the EU will become an industrial powerhouse in the markets of the future," he added.
The stated objective is to reach 20% of the global market by 2030, twice as much as today, by mobilizing €43 billion of public and private investment in this industry.
>> Read also: >> Health, semiconductors, metals: the EU aims for "strategic autonomy"
Essential components
The European Union, at the forefront of flea research, has seen its market share fall in recent decades.
The shortage of semiconductors, which has held back the automotive industry, has caused an electric shock. Geopolitical tensions around China, as well as the pandemic, have raised awareness of the need to produce in Europe these essential components, mainly imported from Taiwan and Korea, to the point of convincing the Commission to relax its strict state aid framework and to assume an interventionist industrial policy in a continent traditionally very open to global competition.
These components are essential in many everyday objects, such as mobile phones, but also in data storage centers, at the heart of the booming digital economy.
With AFP
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