At the initiative of the Netherlands, the responsible ministers from Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, and Spain established the Semicon Coalition in March 2025. Today, all other EU ministers have joined and signed the declaration ahead of the EU Council Competitiveness in Brussels. Minister Vincent Karremans (Economic Affairs) then presented the joint declaration to the European Commission.

So far, more than fifty leading parties from the European and global semiconductor sector have endorsed the declaration. This increases the urgency for a swift revision of the EU Chips Act. The strategic end goal is the successful application of European semiconductors in various (end) markets such as energy, defense, automotive, and AI. This aligns with the report by Mario Draghi on the future of European competitiveness.

The declaration includes five priorities:

  1. Strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem through better collaboration between the sector, researchers, SMEs, and startups.
  2. Investments: Aligning EU and national funding, accelerating the approval of strategic projects, and mobilizing more private capital.
  3. Training more people for this sector through a European talent pool for semiconductor technologies.
  4. Promoting sustainability with more energy-efficient and circular semiconductor production.
  5. Expanding international partnerships and collaborating with like-minded partners outside the EU, while simultaneously preventing unwanted (technological) dependencies.

Minister Vincent Karremans (Economic Affairs): "The European industrial strategy must adapt to the increasing geopolitical tensions. This unique unity of all 27 ministers signing is therefore truly a milestone. Not only for our future prosperity, security, and earning capacity. But especially because this is the way to strengthen and expand the European position in the semiconductor chain, for example by commercializing much more knowledge and turning it into innovations.”

The minister continues: “With this joint strategy, we have endorsed the necessity to increase production capacity in Europe itself and to invest more in research, development, and education. We are ready to meet the growing demand for semiconductors for applications in areas such as AI, the automotive sector, the defense industry, and energy infrastructure.”