Chips Diplomacy Support Initiative

Access to semiconductors is vital to Europe's competitiveness, security and industrial future. These components are crucial to many industrial sectors and consumer products, and play a key role in the global technology competition and in geostrategic interests. Yet geopolitical risks, primarily the US-China rivalry but also Russian threats to the European security order, are placing the security of semiconductor supply at risk.

The European Union must therefore develop semiconductor diplomacy to better anticipate crises, adapt to the geopolitical environment and meet the growth, innovation and dependency reduction objectives identified in the Draghi report on European competitiveness.

The Chips Diplomacy Support Initiative (CHIPDIPLO) is an 18-month project aiming to help structure European foreign policy in the semiconductor sector. It is led by Institut Montaigne with the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS, Bratislava), the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS, Brussels) and the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS, Paris and Brussels), and co-funded by the European Union.

This project aims to complement the efforts undertaken under the EU Chips Act to strengthen the European semiconductor sector by focusing on three main objectives:

• Better anticipate and strengthen risk management for this strategic industry—covering production, access to components, supply chain diversification, and financing— in a geopolitical environment increasingly shaped by economic coercion and the risk of war. 
• Promote a more coordinated approach among stakeholders within the EU in areas such as innovation, industrial policy, and technology transfer controls. 
• Expand networks of expertise with key partners like the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, as well as emerging players such as India and ASEAN countries.

Over a period of 18 months, the consortium will strengthen dialogues between non-state actors of the European semiconductor ecosystem (industry, research and technology organisations, think tanks); upgrade exchanges with key EU partners; provide European actors with policy papers and analytical tools to better manage geopolitical risks; and deliver regular updates to the European Commission on the challenges facing EU industry. 

Finally, through outreach activities on European soil, the project aims to showcase Europe’s industrial and innovation strengths in order to attract investment and talent. 

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The dialogues bring together key stakeholders from across the European semiconductor ecosystem—including industry leaders, investors, suppliers, manufacturers, and consumer industries. Their goal is to enhance coordination and promote dialogue in order to identify best practices and develop concrete solutions to the challenges facing European companies. These meetings also bring together experts from partner countries, providing the European ecosystem with leading expertise in geopolitical risk analysis and best practices in public policy, particularly from East Asia and the United States.  Each dialogue is centered on topics of strategic importance to the future of the European semiconductor industry. 

• Dialogue in Eindhoven (the Netherlands, June 2025) : "Strategic Autonomy or Strategic Indispensability? Identifying the EU’s Semiconductor Lodestar"

"Three questions to" is a series of exclusive interviews conducted as part of the CHIPDIPLO initiative. In each edition, international experts share their insights into the key challenges confronting the semiconductor industry and explore the geopolitical dynamics shaping its evolution.