Semiconductors: the European Commission’s 42 billion euro plan – Le Monde

Little by little, brick by brick, the Europeans are trying to decline this concept of European sovereignty that they have made their own, but which remains to be built. On Tuesday February 8, the Commission is due to present a legislative proposal on semiconductors, the future of which will make it possible to measure the progress made by the Twenty-Seven on the subject in terms of industrial policy.

The text in question aims to provide the Old Continent with sufficient capacity to weigh on the world stage in this highly strategic sector, while electronic chips are now everywhere. They are found in computers, smartphones, televisions, cars, planes, as well as in washing machines, air conditioners and solar panels. And with the digitization of the economy, they will take up more and more space.

Today, the European Union (EU) produces less than 10% of the world’s semiconductors, compared to 40% thirty years ago. With globalization, it has withdrawn from this part of the economy, to the benefit of the United States and even more of Asia. But the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the limits of this model. Europeans have violently realized that, overnight, their suppliers could stop serving them, as they experienced to their cost with masks in the spring of 2020. Shortages, in these times of emerging from the crisis, do not did nothing to reassure them. For semiconductors, we are 80% dependent on Asia and 60% on Taiwan »summarizes the French commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton. “If Taiwan were no longer able to export, in three weeks, all the factories in the world would stop”he continues.

Establish a balance of power with the rest of the world

In this context, the Commission wishes to protect the EU from risks, geopolitical or otherwise, which could bring its economy to a standstill. It is not so much a question, in his eyes, of making it self-sufficient – “It would cost between 240 billion and 320 billion euros”explained the Commissioner for Competition, the Danish Margrethe Vestager, to FinancialTimes February 2 – than giving it back a place in this crucial industry and the means to establish a balance of power with the rest of the world.

Brussels has therefore concocted a plan which should allow Europeans to inject 42 billion euros of public investment into the semiconductor industry on their soil. “This public money will accompany private investments. In total, between now and 2030, between 90 billion and 100 billion euros should be invested in semiconductors in Europe”says a senior official.

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