MEPs Ramp Pressure For Second EU Chips Act

MEPs have called for the European Commission to launch a new plan to support the EU’s semiconductor industry, including advanced AI chips, after they criticised the Chips Act of 2023 as “too slow”.

The lawmakers said recent geopolitical tensions have added to the urgency for greater technological self-sufficiency in the bloc.

“Recent geopolitical developments have shown that Europe cannot take continued access to advanced technologies for granted,” the MEPs said in a letter to EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen.

AI chips

“We must take active steps to make the EU attractive as an R&D, production and investment location,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by 54 MEPs, representing three of the European Parliament’s major factions.

The Commission has said it is planning five packages to spur EU investment this year, including investment in AI, but the MEPs said those plans did not include semiconductors.

This is unfortunate as chips are “at the heart of the EU’s industrial ambitions”, the letter said.

It has become more urgent to address the shortcomings of the first Chips Act in the light of “current geopolitical realities”, lawmakers said.

The EU must “protect its champions from the consequences of extraterritoriality and the ever-escalating competition between the United States and China”, the letter said, referring to the practice of countries enforcing national laws outside domestic jurisdiction.

Chips Act 2.0

One of the major accomplishments of the first Chips Act, a planned Intel plant in Magdeburg, Germany, was shelved last September amidst Intel’s wider financial troubles, although the law spurred other major chip investments in Germany and other parts of the EU.

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

Meanwhile, nine European countries who formed an alliance to promote European-based semiconductor manufacturing have said they plan to present their proposals by the summer.