Semiconductors crisis: Europe needs to strengthen Research & Innovation

The European Commision invites to participate in the survey “European semiconductor value chain consultation”, open from the 10th of October to the 11th of November 2022.

The European Commission has recently recognized the urgent necessity of addressing the crisis in the semiconductors supply chain and the European Chips Act aims to establish a course of action by developing a resilient approach and setting measures to respond to future disruptions.  

However, a lot of critics have been rising towards this initiative, firstly about the focus of the action itself, secondly about the budget. 

As a matter of fact, the Commission wants to invest most of the money in the production of high-end chips, but the current demand from European industry is concentrated on low-end chips.  

Moreover, the total budget risks to be inadequate to address the challenge, if we consider the cost of new chip fabrication plants and the high energy costs. In concrete, the plans expect to use public funds by redirecting € 11 billion from programmes such as Horizon Europe and Digital Europe, while the main amount of money, about € 32 billion, will be provided thanks to private investments, a critical choice which might strengthen collaboration between private companies and national governments at the expense of European power.   

Given this context, it emerges that the European semiconductors value chain is not ready to compete with other global actors such as East Asia, but at the same time, Europe’s leadership in Research & Innovation is a point of strength and this should be increased and enriched towards future challenges. 

In this regard, all the players included in the European semiconductors supply chain have the possibility to participate in the survey “European semiconductor value chain consultation”, open from the 10th of October to the 11th of November 2022.

Don’t miss this opportunity!