European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton told a small group of journalists late on Tuesday 26 October that the European Chips Act would indeed take the form of a legislative initiative.
Responding to EUROPE on the nature of the future initiative, the Commissioner confirmed that it will be a legislative initiative. This response clarifies the status of the initiative, which was listed as “legislative or non-legislative” in the European Commission’s 2022 work programme (see EUROPE 12815/2).
The initiative will consist of four parts, the Commissioner said. The first part will be devoted to research in order to pool research structures. The idea is to accelerate research to achieve an etching precision of 2 nanometres.
A second strand will be dedicated to the resilience of supply chains. Mr Breton spoke here of a “geopolitical supply chain” approach in order to have a “capacity to conduct power relations” with other regions of the world. He cited the instrument on the vaccine export transparency mechanism (see EUROPE 12802/19).
A third component will be dedicated to strengthening “production capacities”, he continued, adding that the global semiconductor market is expected to grow from $500 billion to $1,000 billion by the end of the decade, with growth driven by the mobile phone, automotive and, eventually, the rise of 5G, the Internet of things.
Finally, the fourth part will deal with international partnerships, as the Commissioner remains vague on this point. He concluded, “You can’t choose the oil wells, but you can choose where you put “ the electronic chips manufacturing sites.
The President of the European Commission outlined a three-pronged strategy on semiconductors in her State of the Union speech (see EUROPE 12791/4). Negotiations on an important project of common European interest (IPCEI) on microelectronics are still ongoing. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)