Habeck speaks of a milestone
EU allows semiconductor aid – 31 projects in Germany
06/08/2023, 16:03
The European Union wants to become more independent of chip manufacturers outside the international community. For this purpose, the production capacities are to be massively expanded. Brussels allows a good dozen member states to provide financial support for a total of almost 70 projects.
Thanks to the green light from Brussels, Germany can support 31 semiconductor projects with state money. This was announced by the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin. It is about projects in eleven federal states. Economics Minister Robert Habeck spoke of an “important industrial policy milestone”. This strengthens the German semiconductor industry “along the entire value chain”.
The background to this is that the EU Commission has allowed billions in state aid in the field of microelectronics to strengthen the European semiconductor industry. The Brussels authority on Thursday approved aid from 14 member states totaling up to 8.1 billion euros as part of an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). The state aid is intended to generate an additional 13.7 billion euros in private investment.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German companies involved want to invest more than ten billion euros in production facilities, manufacturing facilities and the development of semiconductor chips, among other things. Among other things, it is about the chip design, the concrete semiconductor production and the integration into components. The companies are to be funded with four billion euros, 70 percent from the federal government and 30 percent from the states.
68 projects from 56 companies
Under an IPCEI, EU member states can grant state aid to companies if they are compatible with the internal market. The EU Commission must give its approval for this and certain requirements apply – including the participation of several member states.
In the current case of microelectronics, France, Italy and Spain, among others, as well as a number of Eastern European countries are involved. According to the EU Commission, there are 68 projects being implemented by 56 companies, including Bosch, Infineon and Airbus. 8,700 new direct jobs are also linked to this.
It was only in mid-April that the negotiators of the EU states and the European Parliament agreed in principle on the so-called Chips Act. This stipulates that the EU will massively increase its production of semiconductors by 2030 and thus become more independent of Asia. Most recently, semiconductors were in short supply in the automotive industry, among other things. But they are also built into laptops, smartphones and refrigerators.