Europe is economically vulnerable because it relies too much on imports of vital technologies like computer chips made in Taiwan, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday.
“When we’re looking at chips or semiconductors, we are too dependent, we are too dependent on Taiwan, we are too dependent on specific sources,” Marin said at the Slush startup event in Helsinki. Taiwan is essential for the global semiconductor value chain, because of the lead the country’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has in advanced chips.
If Europe doesn’t build up its own technological capability, supply might be strained in times of crisis, as was the case in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic or with the war in Ukraine, Marin added.
“I want to highlight the know-how, the knowledge, the technological capabilities that we should have and make sure that we are not making the same mistakes with technology that we have made with energy, that we have made with medical supplies,” she said.
During the European Council discussion on China last month, leaders were warned that any outbreak of conflict with Taiwan — which Beijing views as a renegade province — would likely cause serious disruption to technology supply chains, according to a diplomat.
The EU earlier this year unveiled its own chips plan, in order to push the bloc’s market share in the global semiconductor value chain to 20 percent by 2030.