"Europe risks the threat of being left behind in terms of technology unless it increases its chip manufacturing capabilities," Croatian MEP, Karlo Ressler, said on Friday at a press conference in Zagreb.

“Over 70 percent of all chip factories are located in Asia, and Taiwan alone controls over half of the world’s chip production. That means Europe is slowly falling behind technologically,” warned Ressler (HDZ/EPP), who is the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Budgets Committee on the EU Chips Act.

In February, the European Commission proposed the Chips Act, a comprehensive set of measures for security of supply, resilience and technological leadership of the EU in the field of semiconductor technologies, which aims to prevent the vulnerability of the European Union to external shocks and to help achieve a green and digital transition.

“This act aims to make Europe and Croatia competitive and to run the race equally. We need to encourage innovation with legislative frameworks,” said Ressler. The goal is for European production to increase from 10 percent of the world’s global chip output to 20 percent by 2030.

“More than €43 billion will be mobilized for these needs,” and, according to Ressler, “these funds should be increased by mobilizing private funds.” According to Ressler, “without chips, there is no digital transition of Europe,” and it can be achieved using European funds.

“Modern society is dependent on chips in all areas of life. and in the last few years we have seen that the world’s supply routes are fragile,” Ressler said.