Strasbourg, France, April 18 (AFP/APP): The European Parliament and EU member states reached an agreement Tuesday on how to boost the supply of semiconductors in Europe, as the bloc races to reduce its dependence on Asian suppliers.
The European Union has prioritised local chip production after the economic aftereffects of the coronavirus pandemic triggered supply chain shocks that led to significant shortages.
“The Chips Act will boost the European ecosystem for semiconductors and play a vital part in strengthening the EU’s competitiveness at the global level,” the bloc’s Swedish presidency announced.
Under the agreement, the EU aims to double its current global market share to 20 percent in 2030 and mobilise more than 43 billion euros ($47.2 billion) in public and private investments to feed Europe’s growing appetite for chips.
Europe will need to quadruple its production to meet this target.
German MEP Henrike Hahn tweeted that the deal included 3.3 billion euros allocated to “support large-scale technological capacity building and innovation across the EU in the semiconductor sector”.
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