With a symbolic signing in Brussels, nine European countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium, have supported a new plan on Wednesday morning to strengthen the European chip industry.
This ‘Semicon Coalition’ wants Europe to stop its own pants when it comes to the production of chips and advocates extra innovation and a sharpened successor to the current chips act. The Netherlands would therefore no longer have to resist the pressure of the US around the export of the ASML’s chip machines.
The cooperation is an initiative of the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Dirk Beljaarts (PVV). He has been looking in Europe since last fall for like -minded economies in other industrialized countries. He found it in Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Austria, Poland and Spain. It took a while before Robert Habeck, the German Economy Minister, was also on board. Not because there was doubt about the content, according to Beljaarts, but because German politics was locked up to the recent elections.
Germany is the European country that allocates the most money for the expansion of the chip industry, with billions of support for new factories. The most concrete project is ESMC, the joint venture of the Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC with the European partners NXP, Infineon and Bosch. Germany had also reserved 10 billion euros for a mega project from Intel in Maagdenburg, but those plans were frozen by the American chip manufacturer.
Intel, which is in financial trouble, also planned a factory in Poland. That country reserved a location and the required energy supply and manpower, and now hopes that another chip manufacturer wants to jump into the hole. Italy also counted on a billion -dollar investment of Intel, but saw that project disappear in the fridge.
Germany allocates the most money for the expansion of chip industry in the EU
Dependent
The European investmenthausse in semiconductors has its origins in the Coronacrisis. When a chip shortage caused serious production problems in the car industry, the EU became aware that it is too dependent on chips from Asia, in particular on chip giant TSMC. The geopolitical tensions around Taiwan force the EU to develop a more independent chip production. Because if China decided to block or annex Taiwan, the European car factories are flat again.
In 2022, the EU decided to free up 43 billion euros for a five -year subsidy plan to lure foreign chip manufacturers to Europe. The original objective of this chips act was to increase the European share in global chip production from 8 to 20 percent. That ambition, driven by former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, turned out not to be realistic, certainly not because Intel fails.
That is why the Semicon Coalition wants to cancel that target percentage in the sequel to the Chips Act. How much money Europe would have to free up for this is not the new coalition, says Beljaarts in a telephone explanation. “But we find the 20 percent objective too broad and too general,” he says.
The Semicon Coalition argues for expansion of production capacity on European territory, but now does not want to mention any amount that the new chips act should make available. That is a task for the European Commission. Vice -president Virkkunen was therefore present at the signature. “Step by step, the plan becomes more concrete,” says Beljaarts.
An extension of the Chips Act fits in with the report by Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank. In his recommendations for the EU’s competitive position, he states that Europe should become more resilient in order not to be “blackmailed” by superpowers China and the US.
China in the armor
That is also the second spearhead of the Semicon Coalition: making the ‘chokepoints’ stronger, companies such as ASML that are indispensable for the entire chip industry.
The US has been putting the Netherlands under pressure to impose export restrictions on ASML for several years, the most advanced chip machines that are not allowed to be carried out to China. The Netherlands partly cooperates with that, but is Bang China to hunt it.
In order not to be blown over by the flaring diplomatic violence from Washington, the Netherlands tries to involve other European countries in discussions with the Americans to make a fist together. However, it takes a long time to unite all European member states, which is why Beljaarts wanted to forge a coalition with the countries that are part of ASML’s supplier chain – Germany first. There are companies such as Zeiss and Trumpf, which make indispensable parts for the ASML lithography systems. Other countries are welcome to join, says Beljaarts. “That also applies to the United Kingdom.”
In the meantime, the US with their own Subisidiepot of 52 billion dollars are trying to lure chip factories to the US. Donald Trump does not believe in subsidies, but in threatening with import tariffs on chips. That approach seems to work: TSMC announced last week to invest $ 100 billion extra in five new American factories.