Nine EU Countries Push For New Chips Act

Nine European countries who formed an alliance to promote European-based semiconductor manufacturing have said they plan to present their proposals by the summer, as part of a broader industry push for a follow-up the EU Chips Act that passed in April 2023.

Dutch economy minister Dirk Beljaarts told Reuters that the group, called the Semicon Coalition, is doing “homework for the new Chips Act”, referring to a possible second EU funding programme that the group is promoting.

Beljaarts initiated the formation of the coalition, which is led by the Netherlands and includes Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Austria, Poland and Spain.

EU chip production

The group, which was formally backed by the EU in Brussels on 12 March, is seeking to boost EU-based chip production capacity, make more public and private funding available for concrete applications and technologies, and to develop training and talent for the chip sector.

Beljaarts said Europe has top players in chip research and development and equipment makers, such as the Netherlands’ ASML, but has gaps in chip packaging and advanced production.

He cited the collapse of Intel’s plans to build a plant in Germany, amidst the company’s broader restructuring that has seen it drop or cut back a number of projects.

The group has emphasised that it is seeking to support the European Commission, rather than undermine it, and the Commission has said it supported the plan.

Last week industry groups ESIA, representing European chipmakers, and SEMI Europe, representing the broader chip industry, said they would urge the Commission to plan for a second Chips Act that SEMI said should “decisively support semiconductor design and manufacturing, R&D, materials and equipment”.

Chips Act 2.0

The statement followed a meeting of European lawmakers with more than a dozen EU tech companies including NXP, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Bosch, ASML, ASM, Zeiss and Air Liquide last Wednesday.

The Commission has said it plans five proposals this year to promote European tech investment, including in the AI industry, but has not yet given details.

The original Chips Act failed to attract cutting-edge chip manufacturing to the EU, but is seen as having counterbalanced larger state initiatives from the US and China.

Germany said last November it was planning 2 billion euros (£1.7bn) of chip investment under the Chips Act.

As part of that initiative, the European Commission last month approved a German state aid measure worth 920m euros for an Infineon plant in Dresden.