On Thursday, 14 July, most of the semiconductor experts who were invited by the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) stressed the importance of skills, which the EU is sorely lacking, and the need to create a set of strong ecosystems in order to be able to build a European semiconductor ecosystem that is both robust and resilient.
Thus, Taiwan’s example is the one to follow, according to Wouter Baljon, the head of government affairs and external relations at ASML, one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. “An example I like to use a lot: if you think about the companies that Tesla is afraid of, I always like to use Foxconn, which is a Taiwanese company. [It is] in the proximity of production and innovation on the island of Taiwan, which will enable them to develop, you know, a car or the car of the future”, he explained. He emphasised the “ripple effects” of this ecosystem, which makes it possible to create other particularly innovative ecosystems that will need semiconductors.
Nevertheless, all of the guest speakers stressed the importance of having the skills to achieve the ambitions set out in the ‘Chips Act’ (reaching 20% of global production by 2030). However, the EU is, yet again, facing a major difficulty. “We see a decline in graduates in Europe that aim for a future in the semiconductor industry, which is a stark contrast with East Asia”, Mr Baljon indicated in his opening remarks. In his view, without skills, [having] ambitions and investments will not change anything. Therefore, it is necessary to attract talent and also skills from non-EU countries in order to move forward more quickly.
Director of the Institute for Quantum Control at the Peter Grünberg Institute, Tommaso Calarco believes that the competence centres envisaged by the European Commission will be essential, particularly for developing quantum technologies. “So, we need to create a new generation of quantum engineers really, and this can only happen if we tap into the delocalised pan-European dimension of skills creation”, he insisted, responding to concerns expressed by several MEPs regarding the tendency to concentrate [these efforts] in certain large Member States, such as Germany and France.
Moreover, skills are sorely lacking not only on the private-sector side but also on the public-sector side, especially in understanding and mapping complex production chains and interdependencies at the international level, as Julia Hess, project manager for technology and geopolitics at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, pointed out. “But in relation to the billions of euros spent to strengthen the chip ecosystem, it would cost significantly less to invest in the Commission’s own capacity to understand the semiconductor value chain”, she insisted.
For Ms Hess, the skills and understanding with regard to how supply chains are interconnected lie primarily with private actors. They should, therefore, always be taken into account in the context of ecosystem monitoring. She pointed to the European Commission’s proposed “toolbox” for responding to crises, which remains ill-adapted [to its intended purpose], in her opinion, given that public actors do not possess sufficient understanding of the sector to provide an appropriate response.
International partnerships and crisis
In order to cope with shortages and the risks of ecosystem disruption and failure, Hendrik Bourgeois—vice president of [European] government affairs at American giant Intel, which specialises in manufacturing semiconductors—stressed the importance of forging a close partnership with the United States. He pointed out that the United States shares common values with Europe and is facing challenges that are similar to those affecting the EU. In general, several experts highlighted the importance of not “relocating” the entire semiconductor ecosystem to the Old Continent but focusing on technologies where the EU can have real added value.
As for the co-legislators’ timetable, the exchange of views on the report by Dan Nica (S&D, Romanian) is scheduled for 10 October. The deadline for submitting amendments is 13 October. The date for the vote has not been set yet, but it could take place in November or December of this year. For its part, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU wants to reach a political agreement (a general approach) in December (see EUROPE 12992/10). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)