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The European Union has agreed a landmark plan to boost its chip industry.

The initiative, dubbed the European Chips Act, seeks to help the bloc compete with the U.S. and Asia on tech, and secure control over a critical bit of technology behind the worlds electronics products and devices.

The EU Parliament and 27 member statesreached a deal on the legislationon Tuesday. In a statement, they said the new rules would aim to double the EUs global market share in semiconductors from 10% to 20% by 2030.

This agreement is of utmost importance for the green and digital transition while securing the EUs resilience in turbulent times, Ebba Busch, the Swedish energy minister, said Tuesday.

The new rules represent a real revolution for Europe in the key sector of semiconductors.

The European Chips Act is a massive, 43-billion-euro ($47 billion) package of public and private investments that aims to secure its supply chains, avert shortages of semiconductors in the future, and promote investment into the industry.

The Chips Act has three main aims:

The EU Chips Act will invest 6.2 billion euros to promote industrialization of innovative technologies, establish competence centers for skill development, and ensure access to finance, the European Commission, the E.U.s executive arm,said in a statement.

It will also incentivize investments in manufacturing facilities and provide a framework for integrated production facilities and open EU foundries for security of supply.

Member states will also coordinate to monitor supply and forecast any shortages, the commission said. Since first announcing the plan last year, the EU has already attracted between 90 billion and 100 billion euros of public and private commitments for industrial deployment.

Chips are effectively the brains of electronic devices. Theyre used in everything from smartphones to gaming consoles but also products you wouldnt expect them in, like cars and refrigerators.

Semiconductors, and the mainly East Asia-based supply chain behind them, have become athorny issue for world governmentsafter a global shortage led to supply problems for major automakers and electronics manufacturers.

TheCovid-19 pandemicexposed an overreliance on manufacturers from Taiwan and China for semiconductor components. That dependency has become fraughtwith tensions between China and Taiwan on the rise.

TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, is by far the largest producer of microchips. Its chipmaking prowess is the envy of many developed Western nations, which are taking measures to boost domestic production of chips.

Europe has been seeking to control more of its supply chain to reduce its reliance on foreign market players. The move is part of a push from the EU to achieve digital sovereignty, which refers to the idea that they have more control over critical technologies.

A swift implementation of todays agreement will transform; our dependency into market leadership; our vulnerability into sovereignty; our expenditure into investment, Busch said. The Chips act puts Europe in the first line of cutting-edge technologies which are essential for our green and digital transitions.

At the same time, the bloc has realized it cant achieve this production ramp up alone there are no European firms that can manufacture leading-edge chips.

The EU wants to attract funding from foreign companies into its market. U.S. chipmaking giantIntelis among the companies upping its investments in Europe, and hascommitted over 33 billion eurosto boost chipmaking across the EU.

In the U.K., chip firms have beenthreatening to leave the U.K.due to a lack of similar support from the government.

Europe is home to a titan in the semiconductor space Dutch firmASML. ASMLs extreme ultravioletlithography machines are used to etch microscopic features into silicon wafers. But the company doesnt produce its own chips.

Officials want more semiconductors to be developed within Europe, so they dont face the risk of a big shortage, or threats to national security.

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Europe approves its $47 billion answer to Bidens CHIPS Act - NBC News

BEIJING, April 19 (Reuters) - The European Union has said it is seriously concerned about the arrest of two prominent Chinese human rights activists and has called for their immediate release after they were detained in Beijing last week en route to a meeting with EU officials.

The detention of Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan shortly before their meeting with visiting EU officials last Thursday was "already not acceptable", an EU spokesperson said in an emailed response to Reuters late Tuesday, adding that their "formal arrest on Saturday is a matter of serious concern".

"The EU requested to the Chinese authorities their immediate and unconditional release," the spokesperson said.

"China's ongoing crackdown on human rights activists and lawyers is a well-known EU concern, which we raise at all levels."

Chinese authorities have not confirmed the detention of the two, a married couple, and Beijing's Public Security Bureau did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

When asked about the detentions at a Wednesday briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not refer directly to the pair but said "Chinese authorities handle cases according to the law" and China opposed interference in internal affairs.

Yu Wensheng, 55, is a human rights lawyer who last year completed a four-year prison sentence for "subversion of state power". He was among more than 300 rights lawyers and activists arrested in a 2015 crackdown.

His activist wife, Xu Yan, campaigned for his release, and alleged that he had suffered torture and ill health while in detention. Authorities deny accusations of torture.

The two were formally arrested for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a vague charge used by authorities against dissidents, which carries up to a prison term of up to 10 years for more serious cases, fellow human rights lawyer, Peng Jian, citing information from a relative, told Reuters.

The couple had planned to join a meeting with the EU's visiting top diplomat for Asia, Gunnar Wiegand, EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo Albinana, and Chinese civil society representatives, a source familiar with the matter said.

The EU delegation in Beijing said on Friday three other human rights lawyers, Wang Quanzhang, Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, had been placed under house arrest.

Two of those lawyers had successfully attended Thursday's meeting, said the source, who declined to be identified.

Reporting by Laurie Chen

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Laurie Chen is a China Correspondent at Reuters' Beijing bureau, covering politics and general news. Before joining Reuters, she reported on China for six years at Agence France-Presse and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She speaks fluent Mandarin.

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EU seriously concerned about arrest of Chinese rights activists - Reuters

WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) - Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, the bloc's executive said on Sunday, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine to protect their local agricultural sectors.

After Russia's invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers.

The issue has created a political problem for Poland's ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party in an election year as it has angered people in rural areas where support for PiS is usually high.

"We are aware of Poland and Hungary's announcements regarding the ban on imports of grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine," a spokesperson for the European Commission said in an emailed statement.

"In this context, it is important to underline that trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable."

"In such challenging times, it is crucial to coordinate and align all decisions within the EU," the statement added.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller told state-run news agency PAP the government was in constant contact with the European Commission about the issue, and that the ban was possible due to a security clause.

Poland and Hungary have been embroiled in long-running conflicts with Brussels over issues including judicial independence, media freedoms and LGBT rights, and both have had funds withheld due to concerns over the rule of law.

Ukraine's farm minister Mykola Solsky talked to Hungarian counterpart Istvan Nagy on Sunday and underlined that unilateral decisions were unacceptable, the Ukrainian farm ministry said in a statement. The two agreed to talk again soon, it said.

The ministry said on Saturday that the Polish ban contradicted existing bilateral agreements on exports, and called for talks to settle the issue.

[1/2]A worker loads a truck with grain at a terminal during barley harvesting in Odesa region, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Tkachenko/File Photo

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev said the country was also considering a ban on Ukrainian grain imports, local agency BTA reported on Sunday.

The Polish ban, which came into effect on Saturday evening, will also apply to the transit of these products through the country, the development and technology minister said on Sunday.

"The ban is full, including the ban on transit through Poland," Waldemar Buda wrote on Twitter, adding that talks would be held with Ukraine to create a system that ensures goods only pass through Poland and do not end up on the local market.

State-run Ukrinform news agency said Ukrainian and Polish ministers are due to meet on Monday in Poland and the transit arrangement would be the focus of the talks.

Poland's Agriculture Minister Robert Telus was quoted as saying on Sunday that the ban was necessary to "open the eyes of the EU to the fact that further decisions are needed that will allow products from Ukraine to go deep into Europe, and not stay in Poland."

The ban is due to last until June 30, the finance ministry said.

Ukraine normally exports most of its agricultural goods, especially grain, via its Black Sea ports, unblocked in July in line with an agreement between Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and the United Nations.

That accord is scheduled to expire on May 18 and Moscow indicated last week that it may not be extended unless the West removes obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertiliser.

Around 3 million tonnes of grain left Ukraine every month via the Black Sea grain corridor while only up to 200,000 tonnes are moving to European ports through Polish territory, according to the Ukrainian ministry.

Solsky said at the weekend that 500,000 to 700,000 tonnes of various agricultural products cross the Polish border every month, including grain, vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, meat and other products.

Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Sharon Singleton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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EU warns against unilateral steps after Poland, Hungary ban Ukrainian grain - Reuters

European Union lawmakers on Tuesday gave the green light for citizens from Kosovo to travel freely in Europe without visas from next year.

The move means that Kosovos citizens will be able to travel in the 27-nation Schengen passport free area, which includes most EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, for periods of up to 90 days every six months.

Citizens in the Schengen countries will be able to visit Kosovo without visas too. The former Serbian territory was the last country in the Western Balkans region not to have such travel arrangements with the EU.

LONGTIME FOES SERBIA AND KOSOVO NEARING NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS

Dutch Socialist lawmaker Thijs Reuten, who chaperoned the process through the European Parliament, said the move "finally enables the people of Kosovo to easily travel, visit relatives and do business in the EU."

The European flag, left, flies on April 18, 2023, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. EU lawmakers decided Kosovo citizens will be able to travel freely in Europe with visas beginning next year. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER ASKS WEST NOT TO PRESSURE NATION ON SERBIAN TERRITORIAL TREATY

"But it is more than that," he added in a statement, as the assembly met in Strasbourg France. "This milestone is also an important foundation for the future and ever-closer cooperation between the EU and Kosovo."

Kosovo wants to join the EU and is slowly bringing its laws into line with the blocs standards.

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The visa exemption will enter force as soon as the EUs new electronic travel system is in place and in any case in 2024.

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European Union lawmakers give Kosovo citizens green light to travel freely in Europe without visas - Fox News

Travelers entering the European Union may be able to avoid having fingerprints and biometric data taken until 2024 because the long-awaited entry/exit system looks to be delayed ... again.

Using the latest in biometric and fingerprint technology, the EES will streamline security for third-party nationals entering the EU. It will take their fingerprints and facial biometrics each time they cross a Schengen border and record the date and place of entry or exit.

In short, its about tightening controls and helping border officials.

EES is among the measures undertaken as part of the Security Union and will help achieve the objectives of the European Agenda on Security and the European Agenda on Migration in particular regarding border management and preventing cross-border crime and terrorism," according to the official website of the European Union.

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The system was first slated to begin operating in 2021 but was pushed to November 2023. The rollout has been postponed once again, according to The Independent.

The newspaper says officials for the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice the agency in charge of the EUs major IT system operations do not believe the technology will be ready in time for winter. This casts doubt on whether well see it before the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.

The earliest current launch is reportedly May 2024, just before the sporting event is set to begin. However, this will likely be pushed back to avoid any potential issues arising with the system's launch.

More than 10,500 athletes, hundreds of delegates and millions of sports fans from 206 nations are expected to pour into the French capital next summer ahead of the global spectacle. So, it's believed that officials would look to avoid any potential disruptions as a result of the system.

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Officials who recently met at a Stockholm airport hotel to discuss EES have seemingly decided that the technology will come after the Paris Games. However, the official verdict isn't likely to be announced until after a follow-up meeting scheduled to take place online on May 31.

Once the EES is up and running, it is set to boost the wider use of self-service systems and automated border control checks, providing quicker and more comfortable points of entry for non-EU travelers.

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EUs state-of-the-art exit/entry system could be delayed until 2024 - The Points Guy