EU to introduce laws to drive microchip production and fight ongoing shortages
The European Commission is set to propose a draft legislation for the regulation of microchips at the start of next month, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said this morning.
It comes as the EU’s need for chips is set to double in the next decade, and the market continues to be volatile.
“Most of supplies come from a handful of producers outside Europe. This is a dependency and uncertainty we simply cannot afford,” von der Leyen said during the opening of the World Economic Forum.
“By 2030, 20 per cent of the world’s microchips production should be in Europe,” she said.
The proposal, known as the European Chips Act, will aim to adapt state aid rules, improve tools to anticipate shortages and crisis and strengthen research capacity in Europe.
Semiconductors are at the centre of strong geostrategic interests, and at the core of the global technological race.
The commission website said: “Chips are a strategic component of any industrial chain. The race for the most advanced chips is a race about technological and industrial leadership.”
The US are now discussing huge investment in its own American Chips Act, designed to finance the creation of an American research centre and to help open up advanced production factories.
Taiwan is also positioning itself to ensure its primacy on semiconductor manufacturing, and China is trying to close the technological gap as it is constrained by export control rules to avoid technological transfers.
The announcement declared: “Europe cannot and will not lag behind.”
The ongoing global chip crisis has been attributed to not only the pandemic, but also other factors like the China–United States trade war and the 2021 drought in Taiwan.