Germany – on behalf of the participating Member States – formally pre-notified to the Commission the new Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) to support transnational cooperation projects on microelectronics.
Thierry Breton’s highlights
“With 20 participating Member States (compared to 5 in the previous IPCEI) and more than 90 entities prospective beneficiaries, this IPCEI is a clear sign that Europe as a whole is putting its money where its mouth is. Europe means business” says Thierry Breton in his LinkedIn post on 20 December 2021.
“By joining forces, Member States and industry are kick-starting a process that will lead to important investment decisions to enhance the resilience of Europe’s supply chain in semiconductors” adds Breton.
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action press relase
Germany published on 20 December a press release “32 microelectronic projects in the starting blocks. We have to bring semiconductor production back to Germany and Europe. says Robert Habeck.”
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has selected 32 company projects on microelectronics that are to be funded as part of IPCEI in order to bring the production of semiconductors back to Germany and Europe. The 32 projects have a total investment volume of more than €10 billion. 19 other EU member states with a total of around 90 companies are taking part in the so-called IPCEI project (Important Projects of Common European Interest).
“We want to strengthen chip production in Germany and Europe and become less dependent on international supply chains. We rely on innovative, energy-efficient and climate-friendly technologies to drive the transformation of our industry towards CO2 neutrality.”says Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck.
The IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies aims to promote projects along the entire value chain – from development and production to product maturity. The aim is to create overall microelectronics value chains that are powerful, fast, safe and energy-efficient.
IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies pre-notification
The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action coordinates the IPCEI for the participating EU member states. The 20 participating EU member states have submitted their first projects for the new IPCEI Microelectronics and Communication Technologies to the European Commission today. This so-called pre-notification is the first step towards state aid approval by the European Commission.
The participating companies include industry giants as well as small and medium-sized companies and start-ups. The projects range from material production, chips design and production of semiconductors to the integration in components and systems.
IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies next steps
Each of the 20 Member States will now have to pre-notify each individual project in the coming weeks. This will allow the Commission to start a more in-depth dialogue with each participating country to assess the merit and capacity of each project to increase Europe’s innovation in the sector as well as its security of supply. This assessment is essential to ensure that the whole IPCEI is greater than the sum of its parts.
Given the urgency to act, the Commission will do all it can to ensure a speedy review so that projects can start being implemented on the ground as soon as possible.