European Commissioners Maroš Šefčovič and Henna Virkkunen said on Monday 13 January they were “concerned” after Washington adopted export restrictions on advanced semiconductors linked to artificial intelligence (AI), which will impact certain Member States.
“We believe it is also in the US economic and security interest that the EU buys advanced AI chips from the US without limitations: we cooperate closely, in particular in the field of security, and represent an economic opportunity for the US, not a security risk”, the two Commissioners said in a statement.
The United States has identified 18 partner countries that will benefit from an exemption from restrictions, but several EU member states are not included, and their companies will, a priori, have to then obtain permission to purchase specific American chips up to a certain volume.
The EU wants to talk to Washington “to be sure of finding common ground”, in the words of the Commission’s spokesperson on digital issues, Thomas Regnier.
For his part, the US ambassador to the EU, Mark Gitenstein, defended all the measures taken by the Biden administration at a meeting with the press that was attended by Agence Europe on Tuesday 14 January: “I think our approach is the right one, which is to strike a good balance between the historic principles of free trade on the one hand, and national security on the other. We are placing more emphasis on security, not just because of what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but also because of China’s aggressive approach”.
See the American decision: https://aeur.eu/f/f0y (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Camille-Cerise Gessant)