Work is progressing at the Council of the European Union on the legislative proposal to establish an EU Chips Joint Undertaking under Horizon Europe.
This Commission proposal complements the proposal for a regulation on semiconductors and aims to strengthen the EU’s sovereignty in this area and increase European market share (see EUROPE 13164/3).
According to a draft declaration dated Monday 5 June and accompanying the Swedish Presidency’s latest compromise proposal, the Member States are calling on the Commission to provide a budget breakdown for each strand or ‘cluster’ of the Horizon Europe Programme, totalling €750 million.
Discussions in the Council have also led to a number of changes to the initial legislative proposal.
The Swedish Presidency’s compromise text specifies that capacity-building activities should be funded by the Digital Europe programme. Research and innovation activities should be funded by Horizon Europe.
In the compromise text, the Presidency suggests opening up, to many users, access to the capacity resulting from the joint undertaking, in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.
The Swedish authorities are also proposing a number of additional provisions, notably relating to capping the EU’s financial contribution for capacity-building activities, the EU’s financial contribution to these activities and the structure of the work programme and related voting rights.
In addition, the Presidency would like to include the possibility of funding up to 100% of certain research activities.
The delegations broadly supported the compromise proposal and the draft declaration, which will now be examined by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper).
The European Parliament adopted its negotiating position in mid-February (see EUROPE 13122/12).
Link to the Swedish compromise proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/799
Link to the draft declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/79a (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)