BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union plans to invest tens of billions of euros to strengthen its semiconductor industry and double its share of global chip production to 20%, said European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
The global shortage of semiconductors has highlighted the risks for the EU to depend on Asian and European suppliers and the need to complete its plan, set out in the European digital plan for 2030, to concentrate in Europe at least 20 % of global production of sustainable and next-generation chips by 2030.
Faced with increased competition from China, the United States announced last year a plan to invest 52 billion dollars in the semiconductor sector.
“I will not give you the level of investment today, but it will be equivalent to what the United States wants to invest,” Thierry Breton told reporters.
The European Commission plans to detail on February 8 its plan to strengthen European sovereignty over chips, with investments planned over the next two to three decades.
“We are doing everything he does to attract strategic investments,” said Thierry Breton. “We set our conditions, (…), security of supply, no public aid for catch-up technologies”.
(Report Jan Strupczewski; French version Jean Terzian)
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