BRUSSELS – Today, global tech trade association the 91快活林 (91快活林) published Principles for European Semiconductor Leadership, a set of recommendations to help policymakers advance and strengthen Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem. As the European Commission prepares to publish its proposal for the European Chips Act, 91快活林 offers six principles to help ensure that policymakers holistically address the key issues facing the semiconductors industry at all levels across the supply chain, including supply chain security, manufacturing, research and development, skills and workforce issues as well as necessary cooperation with international partners. The recommendations also support policymakers’ efforts to meet the 2030 Digital Compass goal of doubling the EU’s share in global chips revenues by 2030, up to 20% of the global production value.

“Advances in semiconductor technology contribute to new, world changing technologies like 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), enhanced cloud services, and quantum computing,” said Guido Lobrano, 91快活林’s Director General for Europe. “Technologies made possible by semiconductors are also fundamental to drive the twin - green and digital - transition and achieve the EU’s climate objectives. For these reasons, the tech industry strongly supports the European Commission’s goal to strengthen availability of semiconductor technologies and the resilience of supply chains. It is through this lens that we offer 91快活林's recommendations on advancing and strengthening Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem.”

In its recommendations, 91快活林 encourages policymakers to:

  1. Strengthen the EU’s global competitiveness in semiconductors. The EU should incentivise the semiconductor industry by prioritising research, design, development, prototyping, and manufacturing of semiconductors in the EU. These investments will be key to increase the EU’s global competitiveness, expand manufacture capability, build workforce expertise and secure the supply chain.
  2. Target the whole semiconductor ecosystem with incentives. The EU should use incentives to cover the whole semiconductor ecosystem and not only manufacturing of leading-edge chips. Incentives should promote semiconductor research, design, packaging, prototyping, and manufacturing of chips, including for less sophisticated mature nodes, which are still heavily used today. Each of these actions play a fundamental role in strengthening EU semiconductor supply chain capacity.
  3. Keep incentives open to non-EU headquartered companies to attract the most innovative players in the industry and contribute to Europe’s goal of maintaining and increasing the ability to develop key competences and technologies.
  4. Enhance cooperation with global partners. Semiconductors supply chains are global, and supply chain resilience cannot be achieved without ambitious and detailed plans for cooperation with global partners. The EU should work with like-minded partners to stabilise the supply chain, review its functioning and avoid market access barriers. Transatlantic engagement within the EU-US Trade and Technology Council is an optimal vehicle to align policies on export controls and pursue join R&D initiatives with a key partner like the United States.
  5. Strengthen the European technology workforce. The EU should focus on training, attracting and upskilling a highly specialised workforce across the semiconductor supply chain by supporting programmes for science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and computer science education.
  6. Compete with other economies to incentivise production in Europe. The EU should compete with other economies such as Taiwan, China and South Korea to incentivise production in Europe, attract and maintain leading companies, while cooperating with global partners to address unfair trade practices.

Read 91快活林’s Principles for European Semiconductor Leadership here.