Relaunch the production of semiconductors. This is one of the objectives set by the French presidency of the European Union. Subject which the European Ministers of Industry will discuss on Monday January 31 and Tuesday February 1 in Lens, in Pas-de-Calais.
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Under the Presidency of the Council of the Union held by France until June, France will regularly host Councils of European Ministers. In Lens, the mistress of ceremonies will be the Minister in charge of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and the program promises to be loaded with a key word: sovereignty. Sovereignty to recover, to rebuild, especially for the production of electronic components.
The global shortage of these chips is holding back whole sections of our industries, particularly the automotive industry. Agnès Pannier-Runacher will bring and support a file defended in Brussels by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, the Frenchman Thierry Breton. Under the French presidency, the European Commission is soon to unveil a plan which aims to quadruple European production of electronic chips by 2030. The objective is for the EU to supply 20% of the world’s production of electronic components. electronics.
The objective is very ambitious, especially in the face of Asian production. The world semiconductor market is today dominated by the Taiwanese TSMC, the United States is investing billions of dollars to regain control, as for Europe, it is doing everything to catch up with the train and try to hang up the wagons . But reassembling semiconductor production chains on the Old Continent is a feat. The costs are prohibitive. Today, no European group wants to invest alone in component presses that are unprofitable in the face of Asian competition.
If it wants to regain control, Europe must act on two levers:
1 – Deviate from your own rules competition by directly subsidizing its strategic industries, which is prohibited today.
2 – Obtain essential rare metals in the manufacture of parts. Can Europe do this on its own soil? Are we going to revise our mining code, to survey and mine our own rich lands? Sweden, Poland, Serbia… and the French subsoil is full of tungsten. Ultra-sensitive environmental file but all these subjects are on the table. The French presidency of the Council of the European Union does not promise to be the easiest.