The Competitiveness Council is expected to permanently adopt the regulation establishing a European joint undertaking for high-performance computing at its meeting on 27 and 28 September. According to the most recent statutes, 24 member states in addition, to Norway, are participating in this initiative, which is expected to begin its activities at the beginning of 2019.
It should be recalled that high performance computing (HPC) would help process a significant amount of data using supercomputers in record time. The EU does not own any of the 10 highest performing computers in the world any more (as opposed to 4 in 2012). In January, the European Commission proposed a legal, contractual and organisational framework to help member states coordinate their strategies and investments in this area for the 2019-2026 period. The Council of the EU reached a general approach on 25 June, while the European Parliament submitted its opinion (unbinding) on 3 July (see EUROPE 12054).
Since this date, other countries have demonstrated their intention to participate in the joint undertaking as founding members, forcing the Commission to amend the statutes included in the annex to the regulation. These countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The regulation can be seen at the following link: https://bit.ly/2DhXBxx. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)