Brussels, June 3, 2026 – Commenting on the release of the European Commission’s proposal for the Chips Act 2.0, VDMA CEO Thilo Brodtmann said:

• “With the Chips Act 2.0, the European Commission is addressing the shortcomings of the first version: The measures of the first Chips Act—the establishment of front-end factories and incentives for research—have not reached the necessary wide impact across the value chain and user industries such as the machinery industry . It is positive that there is now a greater focus on engaging in dialogue with the demand side.”

• “We particularly welcome the fact that production equipment has been included in the scope of the Chips Act 2.0 as a strategic element of a competitive supply chain. It will be crucial that European suppliers are also considered here. True technological sovereignty can only be achieved if Europe’s industrial base in the field of chip and electronics production equipment is consistently strengthened and placed at the center.”

• “It will also be important to strike the right balance between ensuring economic security and resilience on the one hand and maintaining the openness to cooperation with international partners that is particularly necessary in the semiconductor sector on the other. The approach of actively seeking strategic partnerships is the right one and must be pursued.”

The VDMA represents 3,500 German and European companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The companies employ a total of around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of whom are in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. It accounts for an estimated turnover of around 900 billion euros in the European Union. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU originates from a manufacturing facility within the single market.