Frankfurt, 7 February 2022 – VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says about the EU Commission's "Chips Act" and the role of mechanical and plant engineering for the technological sovereignty of the EU:

"With the Chips Act, the EU Commission is launching an ambitious race to catch up with planned investments totaling 47 billion euros. This can only succeed if the EU uses the funds strategically and wisely to expand market share in key technologies. The planned chip factories in Europe should be precisely tailored to European needs. The needs of mechanical engineering - one of Europe's largest industrial sectors - must be taken into account: These include chips in the >16 nanometer range, which will not change fundamentally by the end of 2030. The Commission must ensure that the focus is not only on fabs for 2 nanometer chips. But it should take into account the needs of the broad mass of European industry.

Sovereignty comes from efficient value chains and excellent production technology. Like that, there are not only export opportunities for European companies, but also strong positions for the EU in the world market for semiconductors, as well as mutual dependencies. The chances for this are good: There are many EU companies - also in mechanical and plant engineering - that offer world-leading technologies for chip production. The EU can build on this strength. It is therefore in genera good that the Chips Act is broadly based. However, we call on the EU Commission and Member States to focus on strategic strengths in production technology and international cooperation when designing it."

A photo of Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of VDMA, can be found here.

The VDMA represents more than 3,400 German and European companies of the mechanical engineering industry. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and medium-sized businesses. The companies employ around four million people in Europe, more than one million of them in Germany. Mechanical and plant engineering represents a European turnover volume of around 800 billion euros. With a net value added of around 270 billion euros, it contributes the highest share of the entire manufacturing sector to the European gross domestic product.