Brussels: Chips Act 2.0 puts demand at the centre of EU semiconductor policy, and the Council of the EU has started to debate it. The Commission proposed the text on 3 June 2026 as part of its Tech Sovereignty Package, and the Competitiveness Council held a policy debate on it on 24 September. The presidency targets an agreement in the second quarter of 2027 under the One Europe, One Market Roadmap.
The first Chips Act, adopted in 2023, focused mainly on supply. According to a Council background note dated 11 September 2026, it supported more than €53 billion in public and private investment and funded five pilot lines. Chips Act 2.0 keeps that base but shifts the weight toward demand, because industry sees domestic demand as the key element for future investment decisions.
The proposal rests on three pillars. The first covers innovation through an updated Chips for Europe Initiative, with innovation procurement, a Demand Forum, Demand Accelerators and Grand Challenges. The second reduces vulnerabilities by investing in manufacturing capacity, and the third monitors and responds to supply chain disruptions.
Advanced manufacturing, including chips for artificial intelligence, would receive top priority among Strategic Projects under Chips Act 2.0. Those projects would benefit from a permitting process of no more than 12 months. The text also aims to diversify supply for sectors at risk, such as the automotive industry, which suffered badly during earlier chip shortages.
Resilience measures include a voluntary business-to-business Semiconductor Supply Chain Platform. Companies in exposed sectors could use it to share information about shortages and alternative suppliers. The Commission also proposes risk assessments for those sectors, as the Commission’s page on the proposal explains.
The numbers explain the urgency. The Council note puts EU consumption of chips in 2025 at €41.1 billion, or 10.5% of global shipments, while most production still takes place outside Europe. The Commission says Europe produces less than 10% of the world’s semiconductors, and a market projected to reach €1.37 trillion by 2030 makes that gap costly.
The Council debate asked ministers two questions. They had to weigh technological sovereignty against competitiveness and international cooperation, and they had to say which technologies or segments of the value chain Europe should target for leadership. The Council background note does not report national positions, so the outcome of the debate remains open in the sources reviewed here.
The legislative path is still long. Parliament and the Council each have to agree a position before they negotiate, and funding for Chips Act 2.0 will depend on the 2028-2034 budget, which leaders hope to settle by the end of 2026. Chips Act 2.0 will show whether Europe can turn a supply-side programme into a market that pulls chip production toward European factories.
