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[To Eurosmart members only]
Commissioner Thierry Breton on his “Tech & Chips Tour”
Today [11 October], Commissioner Thierry Breton published an article to give his insights on his recent “Tech & Chips Tour”. Thierry Breton went to Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul (see the previous briefing here).
Commissioner Thierry Breton underlines that the European Commission is already working on its future European Chips Act.
Key assets and interdependences
In Thierry Breton’s views, East Asia countries (Japan and Korea) are key players with converging strategic interests. A partnership is needed.
The Commissioner underlines that Europe is the world’s centre for semiconductor research with IMEC and LETI Fraunhofer. Thierry Breton also mentions the FinFet technology needed for below 5nm chips and the FDSOI technology for energy efficiency. The European Chips Act will structure this European research, define a common roadmap and maximise financial support.
Thierry Breton highlights that Europe “is also very well positioned on the industrial manufacturing chain”. He mentions here Zeiss, Soitec, AML. From a strategic point of view, three companies, of which one is European, truly matter: ASML, Tokyo Electron, and Applied Materials. “Three companies, three continents – Europe, Japan and the United States – creating an interdependence that could be the basis for a broader partnership and which makes coordination imperative, especially on the question of export controls.”
Strategic autonomy without production facilities doomed to failure
Europe must avoid what happened with solar panels, by letting technologies go to China. The European Chips Act is meant to preserve Europe’s security of supply. Thierry Breton stresses that the goal is to transform Europe’s advantage in research and innovation into industrial deployment.
Thierry Breton does not agree with “those who would like Europe to solely focus on research and design” because “strategic autonomy without production facilities is doomed to failure”. The solution is not to shift Asian dependence to American dependence, this does not provide security of supply. “We have seen this in vaccines, when supply chains were cut in the name of America First.”
Europe cannot be confined to chips above 20nm. The objective is not to produce everything or relocate everything in Europe but to anticipate risks and rebalance supply chains. Overall, Europe must quadruple its current production capacity within 10 years.
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