The EU’s catch-22 in semiconductors

The verdict of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) is scathing. The EU’s ambition to secure a 20 percent market share in semiconductor manufacturing by 2030 is “deeply disconnected from reality,” states the auditor in charge, Annemie Tuttelboom. “The EU urgently needs a reality check in its strategy for the microchips sector,” she says.

The industry knew this all along, yet kept quiet about it. Why discourage policymakers from taking an interest in semiconductors when you can massage them into sending some money your way? Think tanks, meanwhile, were so enveloped in the strategic autonomy/technological sovereignty narrative that they failed to see that the bar had been set unrealistically high.