At the ‘Shaping Europe’s Quantum Future’ conference, held on Friday 22 March under the auspices of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, 21 European leaders signed the ‘Quantum Pact’ – the European declaration recognising the strategic importance of quantum technologies for the EU’s scientific and industrial competitiveness.
With its emphasis on “cooperation, investment and innovation”, the declaration aims to make Europe the world’s “quantum valley” and give the EU an industrial edge in the race for this technology.
For the EU, it is also a question of trying to anticipate rapid developments in the sector so as not to find itself at a disadvantage in the future in terms of dependence, strategic position on the world stage, autonomy and security.
This initiative is part of the European research programme ‘Quantum Technologies Flagship’, which has resulted in a strategic research agenda for 2020 to guide the future development of quantum computing in Europe.
At this stage, six EU countries have not signed the declaration: Ireland, Austria, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal.
See the declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/bi5 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)