The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has advanced this Friday that the European Chip Law, with which the Twenty-seven intend to double their production of semiconductors to reach 20% of the global quota by 2030, will be in force formally in the fall. Her announcement comes only a few hours after the American company Broadcom made public that it will invest 1,000 million dollars (around 920 million euros at current exchange rates) to build a chip factory in Spain.
“We want to make Europe a world leader in semiconductor research, design, teaching and production,” Von der Leyen stressed during a visit to the Inter-University Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Leuven (Belgium). German politics has had an impact that the fledgling regulation “is already generating amazing momentum. Since we proposed the European Chip Law in February of last year, more than 90,000 million euros of industrial investment in Europe have been announced”, he has put in value. Among them would be the projects that Intel, Cisco and now Broadcom have announced that they will establish in Spain.
Von der Leyen, who has visited the IMEC together with the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, and the Minister-President of the Flanders region, Jan Jambon, points out that this institution has received 300 million euros of community funding. The European Chip Law is an attempt by the EU to reduce its dependence on Asia and avoid supply problems like those experienced during the pandemic.
Reduce dependency on Asia… and the US
The initiative arose as a result of the shortage generated by the covid-19 of some components that are essential in any technology, from mobile phones to solar panels that go through vehicles, but for whose manufacture it depends on Taiwan and South Korea, which monopolize more s 70% market share, while the United States dominates in design.
The European Chip Law seeks to reduce this dependence and gain share in a market that moves annually 433,000 million dollars (about 398,282 million euros) where the Twenty-seven have the strength, and better monitoring the supply situation to avoid future crises.
The measure has an endowment of 3,300 million euros from the European budget, but the EU calculates that it will be able to mobilize a total of 43,000 million euros between public investments, for example with post-covid recovery funds, and private ones. Last April the Council of the EU (the Member States) and the European Parliament closed an agreement on the legislation, which before entering into force must be formally approved by both co-legislators.
