On the sidelines of the Telecommunications Council on Monday 7 December, thirteen of the European Union’s Member States signed a joint declaration in which they undertake to support the development of processors and semiconductors in Europe. Other Member States could join this initiative, which has set the goal of launching an important project of common European interest (IPCEI) in this field.
These thirteen countries are France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.
The document stresses the importance of such components, whether for mobile phones, cars, or environmental monitoring, but deplores the fact that Europe’s share of the €440 billion global semiconductor market is around 10%, “well below its economic standing”, it comments.
In addition, Europe is increasingly dependent on semiconductors produced in other parts of the world, especially those used for electronic communications, data processing, and computing tasks, including processors.
In this context, the co-signatories agree to work together to strengthen Europe’s capacity to design and ultimately manufacture the next generation of reliable, low-power processors.
Link to the document: https://bit.ly/39QqiAw (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)