Initiative of Saxony: EU semiconductor regions form alliance

European regions with semiconductor industries will form an alliance in the future. On the initiative of Saxony, the alliance was forged in Brussels on Thursday. Participating are 27 regions from twelve EU member states. "Microelectronics means digital sovereignty. Anyone who does not have this competence will not be able to play a role in the future," said Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) in his opening statement in Brussels this afternoon. Without this competence, he said, climate protection and the restructuring of the economy will not succeed. That is why it is so important that this technology is mastered in Europe. The aim is to double the current world market share of European semiconductor production of ten percent. To this end, the European Commission wants to mobilize public and private investments of up to 43 billion euros.

The European Semiconductor Regions Alliance (ESRA) sees itself as a platform of the regions and partner of the European Commission in the implementation of the European Chip Act. In this way, the alliance aims to make an active contribution to strengthening Europe as a semiconductor location in global competition and to promote the competitiveness of the industry in the regions of the member states and the entire European Union. Specifically, the aim is to share knowledge, promote collaboration and innovation, develop strong and resilient value chains, and reduce unilateral dependencies, especially on critical raw materials.

The following regions are networked in the alliance: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia in Germany, Andalusia, the Basque Country, Valencia and Catalonia in Spain, Flevoland and North Brabant in the Netherlands, Carinthia and Styria in Austria, the Centro region in Portugal, Flanders in Belgium, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France, Piedmont in Italy, Tampere and Helsinki in Finland, South Moravia in the Czech Republic, Wales in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.