On the occasion of the announcement to start trilogue negotiations on the EU Chips Act as well as the vote on the Chips Joint Undertaking, which was adopted with 594 votes in favour, 15 votes against and 27 abstentions, Henrike Hahn, MEP (Greens/EFA), Deputy speaker of the German Delegation, Industrial Policy Spokesperson of the European Group, comments:

"This week the start of the trilogue negotiations on the EU Chips Act was announced in the plenary of the European Parliament. This is good news for European industrial policy, because the Chips Act in Europe will benefit many.

According to the position of the European Parliament, all innovative SMEs along the semiconductor value chain in Europe will potentially benefit from the EU Chips Act and the associated funding in the future, as well as major projects already in the planning stage, such as INTEL in Magdeburg.

We can report a number of green negotiation successes.

The definition of a "first-of-a-kind" facility, which we have expanded, makes the EU Chips Act an important instrument for promoting product and process innovations as well as research and development in Europe.

We have also achieved that there will be no new exemptions to existing environmental legislation for the construction of new factories. However, member states can still decide for themselves whether existing exemption rules, for example in the Water Framework and Habitats Directives, should be applied to individual projects.

Today, the Parliament’s position on the so-called Chips Joint Undertaking was also passed with an overwhelming in plenary. It aims to implement parts of the Chips Act's research agenda. "Reduce, reuse and recycle" are some of the principles we negotiated into it. This clearly reflects our approach to green industrial policy."

 

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